State Library & Historical Center reorganisation

hood

I started a thread for this because I think this think is going to be a continuing story.

Theres a lot to digest in this article, a lot of very preliminary ideas being tossed around. I personally like the idea of Impression 5 taking over the entire Library side, with the school and/or offices on the 5th floor. I hope they also give the Historical museum a makeover though.

MSU, City, State may partner on Museum

MichMatters

I'm generally skeptical of this, particularly the part about moving the State library and archives, which I favor being maintained as-is given that it's one of the best/most comprehensive in the entire country. Essentially dismantling it and handing it off to MSU doesn't seem like a good deal, and I share the concern of the guy near the end of the article who says we have to maintain complete public access to any of the materials that library/archvies currently have. No on pushing this seems to want to acknowledge the MSU Library is already busting at the seams as it is. It makes me believe that quite a bit of the State material will end up in storage or sold off/destroyed, altogether.

The museum is a whole other ballgame, though, and one that I think could greatly benefit from a new focus and function. More local museums should have been apart of the plan from the beginning, to be honest, and I'd definitely support the idea to move Impression 5 part of the space.

I'm particularly intrigued about mention of a possible small, high-quality 500-student high school somewhere in the building. Whether it's sponsored or ran by the Lansing Public Schools doesn't matter, to me, as I think there is a market for a more upscale high school in the heart of the city, for once. The spokesman from LPS makes a mistake when he sees their dwindling numbers, but doesn't take into account that just because the city district is losing students doesn't automatically equate to the city, as a whole, losing school-aged individuals at nearly the same rate. Hopefully, a new downtown high school wouldn't just attract back school-aged city kids from private schools in the area, but attract from beyond the city borders.

All-in-all, I'm waiting to see how it pans out, though, to reiterate, I'm not in support of every one of the consultant's suggestions.

hood

I agree it's far too early to pass any judgement on this. If they don't move the Library though, there won't be enough space to do much of anything, except with the 5th floor office space. I'm torn on what to do, there are so many potential uses, many of which are good ideas there's just not enough money or space to do everything.

MichMatters

The more Ithink about this, though, the more I'm not convinced that the State Library & Archives is where all of this plan has to happen. If there was the will (and there doesn't seem to be), I'd actually like to see some addition or annex built on part of the huge surface lot directly to the south of the current complex to house all of this.

But, I realize that for as good a face as they are trying to put on it, this plan is essentially the dismantling of the center. That's all it is, in the end. In my vision, we'd actually be [o]condolidating[/i] state records and culture at this center, not trying to liquidate it and turning it into some commercial enterprise.

cliffordzang

I really hope this doesn't screw up the library.

dogsdaddy

Is there any update on this topic?

hood

Not that I know of. The library and museum are still open, unchanged from before.