Building for the Future

With an eye to the future, the Washington County Library is currently assessing and re-imagining the building facilities of three of its libraries: Park Grove in Cottage Grove, Wildwood Library in Mahtomedi, and Valley Library in Lakeland.

The Park Grove and Wildwood library projects are major building construction projects that will offer improved facilities to serve visitors and patrons. The projects are each expected to be completed by fall 2020, and are funded through the proceeds of tax exempt bonds issued in 2019.

The Valley Library project is a study to assess how updates might provide useful changes to the library for its patrons, programming, and collections. Design recommendations from this study are expected to be presented to the County Board in summer 2018.

Information will be updated as progress is made on the projects.

Washington County Library offers many thanks to the community members who showed their support and interest during the spring community engagement events held for the library’s three building projects. The feedback and opinions shared allowed for the successful collection of community input, which plays a role in designing the library of the future.

The events were part of pre-design planning for the building projects for Park Grove Library in Cottage Grove, Wildwood Library in Mahtomedi, and Valley Library in Lakeland.

Over 300 residents participated in community engagement meetings. In addition, library and county staff members and the architects met with focus groups of library users and community stakeholders; gathered feedback through online and paper surveys; and posed questions on social media.

The next step is for the architecture firms to develop detailed designs and drawings for all three projects. Residents can get building project updates on this page, or by following the library on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @WashCoLib.

To see the most recent updates for each project, please click the tabs below.

Park Grove Library
Valley Library
Wildwood Library

Existing libraries offer inspiration for future of Park Grove Library

Attendees at the April 16 community engagement meeting were able to give input on what real-life libraries the new Park Grove Library could be modeled after. Read on...
Nearly 90 people attend first community engagement meeting

More than 90 people visited Park Grove Library on Tuesday, March 20 to offer their ideas about how to building a new library of the future on the site. Read on...
Community engagement events scheduled for Park Grove Library

Residents and patrons are invited to contribute their thoughts and opinions through a series of community meetings that will be conducted in early 2018. Read on...
Architecture firm selected for Park Grove Library project

The Washington County Board of Commissioners approved a contract with Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson, Inc. Read on...
Target Completion Date: Fall 2020

The Park Grove Library was built at its current location on Hemingway Avenue in Cottage Grove in 1984. Read on...