Wikimedia Commons · Eric E Castro from San Francisco · CC BY 2.0Anza Branch Library was built in 1932: a two-storey WPA-era stucco building of about 7,228 square feet at 550 37th Avenue, with an elaborate gilt ceiling and decorative tiles, serving the Outer Richmond and Seacliff. The November 2000 Branch Library Improvement Program bond proposal costed its rehabilitation at $4,160,000 plus $880,000 of expansion — $5,040,000 in all — against a schedule of 22 months of planning and design and 20 months of relocation and construction. The Arts Commission's Civic Design Review took the project through three phases in 2008 and 2009. The building permit for the work, $3,019,736, covers an added elevator and rear staircase, a new accessible entrance, restrooms and drinking fountains, replacement windows and a seismic upgrade, all "while preserving the historic character". Public Works recorded the result: the branch reopened in June 2011, gutted and re-engineered to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver standards, its ceilings painstakingly restored by Julian and Anna Billotte. The branch's ordinary life is in the record too — the Library Commission held its February 1978 meeting here, and the 1996 programme calendar lists preschool storytimes and a Chinese New Year celebration.
550 37th Ave · City-owned · 8,222 sq ft · parcel 1508012B · District 1 · City Facilities registry
No city spending is recorded against this place by name. San Francisco publishes contracts, bond items and vendor payments at project level, and none of them names this site — so there is no figure to show, rather than a figure of zero.
Run by the Public Library, whose whole-department budget is $187.4M across 985 staff (FY2025) — citywide, not this place’s own. The City does not publish a running cost per building.
Public Works' annual report recording the June 2011 reopening, the LEED Silver rebuild and the restoration of the gilt ceilings.
Annual report / Department of Public Works, City and County of San Francisco ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scansThe November 2000 bond proposal describing the 1932 building and costing its rehabilitation and expansion at $5.04 million.
Branch library improvement program : November 2000--general obligation bond program proposal · 2000 ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans
3 procedural records — minutes, agendas, calendars — not listed.
