T&A at CSUMB

Donors visit library site

Members of the Tanimura family listen as CSUMB's Jim Conway describes building features.

Members of the Tanimura and Antle families, lead donors for CSUMB's new library, visited the construction site recently for a guided tour, and they liked what they saw.

"We were here for the groundbreaking, and to come here eight months later and see what's happened with the construction is amazing," said Gary Tanimura, vice president of production for Tanimura & Antle. He added that the library will offer a better educational experience for students, including those who are the children of local agricultural workers.

The families, pioneers in the Salinas Valley's agricultural industry, donated $4 million to the project. With the state covering $52 million of the total cost, an additional $8 million still needs to be raised from private sources.

According to Ron Deller, CSUMB's lead construction manager for the project, the library is about a month ahead of schedule. But, he warned, that could disappear once work on the inside of the building gets under way.

"We have a long way to go ahead of us, but it's going to be a beautiful building for this campus when it opens," Deller said while guiding the tour.


Inside the atrium

The tour included stops on each of the building's three floors, a look at the atrium – the building's signature feature – and a visit to the roof, which provided a 360-degree view of the campus and the surrounding areas.

Ground was broken for the $64 million library last October. The 136,000-square-foot building, the cornerstone of campus redevelopment, is scheduled to open in September 2008.

EHDD Architecture, the San Francisco-based firm whose work includes the new library at Monterey Peninsula College, designed the building. The structure will include shelf space for over 550,000 volumes, two auditoriums, three classrooms and four academic labs, as well as offices for the library staff.

To learn more about the library, visit csumb.edu/library.