In 2006, Jose A. Gamez became the new director of McAllen Public Library. During his previous post as director of the Pharr Memorial Library, he’d moved the library from its old building to a 20,000 square-foot addition.
Shortly after taking over the McAllen library, he found himself making history repeat itself. The city government bought an old Wal-Mart and wanted to convert it into a new home for the McAllen Public Library.
Doing so would save the city about 40 percent of the $28.5 to $32 million it would take to build a new library from scratch.
The architectural firm called Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. began by largely gutting the building.
They replaced the endless aisles of merchandise with computer labs, an auditorium, reading lounges, class rooms, civic center and meeting rooms. Some of the new facilities were tailored specifically for children or teenagers.
Area 3918, for example, is a lounge where teens can watch movies, play games, surf the Internet or study. The library also became home to over 355,000 books.
The library boasts an outdoor reading lounge with brightly colored tile murals inspired by the plants and animals found in the Rio Grande Valley. It also has a café and hosts a farmers’ market.
The residents of McAllen were delighted with the new library. After it opened in late 2011, new user registration jumped by 23 percent during its first month alone. People actually waited in line to get in.
As of 2012, the McAllen Public Library, which is 124,500 square feet, was the largest single-floor library in the US.
In April 2012, it won the Library Interior Design Competition that is held by the International Interior Design Association.
