USC Library Reopens
after $17-Million Restoration
After being closed for nearly two years for seismic retrofitting and general restoration, the University of Southern California’s 69-year-old Edward L. Doheny Memorial Library in Los Angeles reopened with a gala ceremony October 10.
Some of the $17-million total cost to restore the 168,000-square-foot library was covered by a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant issued to help bring the library up to current building codes. Seventeen shear walls—walls up to 75 feet high that protect the building against lateral movement—were added to the library, which had been damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Los Angeles Times reported October 11.
Other improvements included the installation of sprinklers, a complete interior and exterior cleaning, and the removal of tobacco stains left when smoking was allowed in the library. All the library’s holdings were removed while restoration took place.
Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, USC President Steven Sample, and Harvard University Library Director Sidney Verba were among the speakers at the ceremony.
Posted October 15, 2001.
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