Wikimedia Commons · J. Ash Bowie · CC BY-SA 3.0The record centers on the making of the current Main Library. A 1991 draft environmental impact report assesses the New Main Library project on Marshall Square, and a facility assessment recommends new construction there after a 1986 space-requirements study. A 1991 press release notes the Library Commission approved design-development drawings for the new building, designed by Cathy Simon of Simon Martin-Vegue Winkelstein & Moris and James Ingo Freed. A 2000 post-occupancy evaluation reviews the finished building and its close-out items. Operated by the Public Library (FY2025 budget about $187M); a 'Workforce Dev Main Library' contract with Urban Alchemy has paid $2,702,896.81 of an agreed $5,011,265.61.
100 Larkin St · City-owned · 376,000 sq ft · parcel 0354001 · District 5 · City Facilities registry
What the City actually paid, across 2 contractors. Contractors big enough to have their own page are linked; the rest are named only.
+ 13 more contracts
Every line opens that contract’s own page, with its spend curve and its subcontractors. Agreed amounts are ceilings, not spending.
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.
A Civil Grand Jury interim report finding that many city departments and commissions simply were not filing their required reports with the library's Documents Department, as the Administrative Code obliges them to.
Neglect of reporting requirements : interim report : report of the 1999-2000 San Francisco Civil Grand Jury · 1999 ↗Internet Archive — Democracy's LibraryA post-occupancy evaluation of the new Main Library, commissioned after the strategic audit, measuring how the finished building actually served the services inside it.
San Francisco Public Library Post Occupancy Evaluation · 2000 ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scansThe 1991 draft environmental review for building the new Main Library.
San Francisco Main Library : draft environmental impact report · 1991 ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scansA 1998 historic structure report on the Old Main Library by Page & Turnbull, documenting the granite steps and elevations before its conversion to the Asian Art Museum.
Historic structure report, Old Main Library · 1998 ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans
See 2 more documents
- The San Francisco main public library : an assessment of the existing facility and its ability to meet future library needs ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans
The library's own strategic plan for 2003-2006, in draft, setting out how it would reprioritise its resources.
San Francisco Public Library strategic plan, 2003-2006 : July 7, 2003 draft · 2003 ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans
3 procedural records — minutes, agendas, calendars — not listed.



