Santa Fe Springs is a community of about 17,000 located just southwest of Los Angeles. In Spring 2009, the Santa Fe Springs City Council approved a $5 million renovation project for the Santa Fe Springs City Library. The library serves 176,000 people a year. The goal of the renovation was to provide more of a community environment. The library wanted to become a more functional place for people in the community to gather. The expansion was necessary in order to support growth in print collections. The library also planned for a growth in digital resources. The new building was designed to support sustained growth for twenty years or longer. The renovation of the 51 year old, 15,000 square-foot library involved gutting the building and completely remodeling. The library closed June 22, 2009 and reopened in July 2010. An outdoor garden and library architecture to allow more sunlight inside the library were part of the renovation. New areas and rooms were created, and many features were added to support user needs. This will be discussed more in the next post.