North Beach Library

2000 Mason Street at Columbus
Built 1959
Appleton & Wolfard

Brief History

The North Beach Library was designed by the firm of Appleton & Wolfard Architects, a firm that designed more libraries in San Francisco than any other single firm in the city’s history. Between

1951 and 1966, this firm designed eight branch libraries, including the North Beach Branch, which in 1959 was the fifth of these branch buildings to open. These eight branch libraries reflect the City’s greatest capital expenditure in the library modernization movement. Combined, they generally embody the principles of mid-twentieth-century American public library design and display a style that Appleton & Wolfard employed for libraries, expressing a residential character and scale utilizing natural light, and an appreciation of craftsmanship, color and texture of natural materials. Like the other Appleton & Wolfard branches, simplicity of form, openness and a functional layout are among the North Beach Library’s noteworthy characteristics.

The building is located on the western edge of the Joe DiMaggio Playground.

Current Project Background

San Francisco Public Library and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department propose to replace the existing North Beach Branch Library and to undertake improvements to the Joe DiMaggio  Playground. Mason Street between Lombard Street and Greenwich Street would be closed to allow the park to expand and to accommodate the floor plan of the proposed library. The new North Beach Branch Public Library would be constructed on a triangle lot at 701 Lombard Street. The proposed library building would be triangular and approximately 8,500 square feet, on two levels. Upon completion of the new branch library, the existing library would be demolished, and the site would be graded for open space within Joe DiMaggio Playground. The existing playground spaces would be reorganized and relandscaped.

On October 7, 2009, the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) initiated landmark designation for the eight Appleton & Wolfard libraries as a non-contiguous historic district. After further evaluation, the HPC decided at its June 16, 2010 to move forward with a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors to designate the Marina and the North Beach Branch Libraries as City Landmarks.  On November  11, 2010 the Board of Supervisors voted not to designate the North Beach Branch as a landmark.

Heritage Position

The DEIR consistently prioritizes recreational and other program goals for the project over preservation of the historic North Beach Library. This bias is reflected in the DEIR’s overly narrow list of project objectives; its failure to establish the purported infeasibility of the Preservation & Southerly Expansion Alternative; and its premature rejection of other potentially feasible alternatives to demolition, such as a northern expansion or below ground expansion.

UPDATE: The Final Environmental Impact Report for the North Beach Library and Joe DiMaggio Park project was certified in a 4-3 vote by the Planning Commission on April 25, 2011. In early May, Friends of Appleton-Wolfard Libraries filed an appeal of the Planning Commission vote which will be heard by the Board of Supervisors on June 7. Meanwhile, on May 19, 2011, the State Historical Resources Commission voted 4-1 to recommend that the library be listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

UPDATE: On May 19, the State Historical Resources Commission voted 4-1 to recommend the North Beach Library be listed in the National Register.

UPDATE: On June 7, the Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected an appeal of the project’s final environmental impact report.

Heritage Comments

April 20, 2011 – North Beach Library FEIR Certification comment letter (large file, may take a few minutes to open)

October 12, 2010 – North Beach Library DEIR comment letter

October 6, 2010 – North Beach DEIR testimony

September 16, 2009 – Appleton & Wolfard historic district comment letter

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