Architects: LEVER Architecture; Noll & Tam Architects
Size and location: Adding 1,500 square feet on the existing historic site
Timeline: Opening February 8, 2025
North Portland is an expanded, modern space, built to reflect its diverse surrounding communities. The historic Carnegie building was updated and 1,500 square feet was added for a total of 10,200 square feet of space on the existing site.
Celebrate the grand reopening of North Portland Library!
We are excited to welcome you back to North Portland Library. Join us for two days of free, fun-filled community events to celebrate. Community events will be updated here as they are scheduled.
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Ribbon cutting ceremony; 9:30-10 am
Rhymes and Roots: Celebrating North Portland through Poetry; 11 am-12 pm
MexicaTiahui Aztec Dance Group 12-1 pm
Toyin Oyemaja's Floral Design Workshop; 12:30-1:15 pm
Toyin Oyemaja’s Floral Design Workshop; 1:15-2 pm
African Song and Dance; 1:30-2:30 pm
Toyin Oyemaja’s Floral Design Workshop; 2-2:45 pm
Meet the Artists of North Portland Library; 3-4 pm
Clownin' Around with Nikki Brown Clown; 3-5:30 pm
Henna by Ayni & Hannan; 4-5:30 pm
Sunday, February 9, 2025
Creative Learning: Come Play with Music Tech!; 12-2 pm
Walidah Imarisha and Afrofuturism; 12:30-1:30 pm
Soar Wondrously with Latoya and James Lovely; 2-3 pm
Indigenous Hoop Dance with Cooper Nez (Diné); 2:30-3:15 pm
Rhymes and Roots: Poetry from the Community; 3:30-4:30 pm
Kids Junk Orchestra: Musical Journey; 4-5 pm
New features
To recognize its role as a diverse, beloved location, all of North Portland Library’s updates are the result of extensive community and staff engagement with features for the community to enjoy.
New features include:
- A Black Cultural Center for connection and a celebration of Blackness.
- An early learning and play space for children and their families.
- A large community room for meetings and library programs.
- Updated wi-fi and technology, including more laptops, iPads and creative software for patron use.
- New Automated Materials Handling system, ensuring materials get to patrons much faster.
- Modern self checkout stations to provide a better patron experience.
- Outdoor area for community members to relax and connect.
- New art that represents the community in partnership with the Regional Arts and Culture Council, including:
- Art glass panels in the Black Cultural Center based on an original painting by Sadé DuBoise featuring Ghanaian Adinkra symbols
- Wood carvings by Melanie Stevens which highlight four Black afrofuturist authors: Sun Ra; W.E.B. Du Bois; Octavia Butler; Zora Neale Hurston
See what you, the community, voted for at North Portland Library with this fly-through.
Centering the community
North Portland Library has long been the library home to the Black community in Portland. That's why insights from the Black community have guided the vision and purpose for the new Black Cultural Center. We reached out through focus groups, tabling events and one-on-one conversations. The center will be a place of community and celebration for the Black community.
In partnership with the Regional Arts and Culture Council, North Portland Library offers new public art that reflects the community. This includes a series of wood-carved portraits by local artist Melanie Stevens, displayed around the east-side window of the Black Cultural Center. Melanie's work focuses on important Black stories and cultural reclamation, inspired by her background in printmaking and graphic novels. The portraits will honor four significant Afrofuturist writers: Octavia E. Butler, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston and Sun Ra.
Artist Sadé DuBoise created an original painting that was digitized and embedded into glass, making a large replica that will be part of the new Black Cultural Center. The glass panels will be installed on the west side of the Center, so people can see the artwork both inside and outside. Sadé's art is influenced by her North Portland upbringing and community input, blending respect for ancestry with a vision for the future. She held two community sessions to gather ideas for the artwork, including Adinkra symbols, which belong to the people and traditions of Ghana and are icons of African symbolism and philosophy.
Additionally, the design team asked for feedback from Black Portlanders on different color and design choices before opening them up for a public vote. The community chose the interior colors, which are inspired by Afrofuturism and the Black imagination. The final design features royal blues with golden accents, celebrating Black excellence in the past, present, and future.
We also reached out to other groups in the neighborhood. We heard from the community through public meetings, surveys, workshops and more. The design team hosted paid focus groups with diverse groups, including:
- Spanish-speaking communities
- Immigrants and refugees
- Indigenous communities
- Disability community
Teens helped shape teen spaces through a paid program called Youth Opportunity Design Approach (YODA). In sessions led by the architects and youth librarians, teens who use Albina and North Portland libraries shared what will make them feel welcome. Read more about this program.
Learn about how community engagement has guided all the projects.