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It\u2019s either the worst-kept secret in Dallas or the most repeated rumor around; in this small town pretending like it\u2019s a big city, it\u2019s sometimes hard to tell the difference. A little digging revealed it\u2019s quite likely the latter, because we sure do love our conspiracy theories. But either way, it\u2019s a question worth asking: Is the downtown library as imperiled as the City Hall across the street?<\/p>\n
The two buildings suffer from the most Dallas of maladies: long-deferred maintenance on a city-owned building, and around these parts that appears to be a death sentence no matter how significant or stately the structure. Just look at City Hall, whose potential demise is being fast-tracked through City Council chambers like nothing I\u2019ve ever seen at 1500 Marilla St.<\/p>\n
Only a few weeks back we were told I.M. Pei\u2019s brutalist building needs somewhere between $150 million to $325 million worth of work, a figure that keeps climbing<\/a>. On Wednesday, the City Council will vote on a resolution<\/a> that all but seals City Hall\u2019s fate, directing City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert to look at leasing office space elsewhere while completing \u201can analysis of the potential economic impact of a redevelopment of the City Hall site.\u201d<\/p>\n Which brings us back to the eight-floor, 600,000-square-foot J. Erik Jonsson Central Library directly across the street from City Hall and named for the mayor who proposed both buildings as part of his Goals for Dallas intended to wash away the stain of a president\u2019s assassination. Jonsson led the fundraising efforts for the library that bears his name; by the time the library opened in 1982, just four years after City Hall, Jonsson had raised $13 million of its $43 million price tag. He said it was the best thing he\u2019d ever done for Dallas.<\/p>\n Opinion<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n In 1986, then-library director Lillian Bradshaw, with Mayor J. Erik Jonsson and his 2-year-old great-granddaughter, Margaret Lewis, unveiled the Central Library’s new sign honoring the mayor who raised millions for its construction. Ross Perot actually pushed for the library to be named in Jonsson’s honor.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason the buildings look like pieces of the same puzzle: \u201cFeaturing an inverted center portion and bold lines,\u201d Dallas historian Darwin Payne wrote in No Small Dreams: J. Erik Jonsson \u2014 Texas Visionary, \u201cit was a perfect counterpart to the new city hall across the street.\u201d So much so it\u2019s difficult to imagine one building without the other.<\/p>\n Yet it\u2019s no secret that the central library suffers from many of the same ailments that plague Pei\u2019s building. <\/p>\n In April 2024, a San Francisco-based architect who had worked on the library system\u2019s new master plan warned the City Council\u2019s Quality of Life, Arts & Culture Committee<\/a> that the J. Erik Jonsson is \u201cone of only two Dallas libraries assessed by the city to be in less than good condition.\u201d Said Jill Eyres to the committee, \u201cMany of the building\u2019s key systems, such as electrical, plumbing and elevators, are beyond their expected useful life, [and] the longer they go without upgrade and replacement, the more likely they are to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n With some understatement she warned that renovation wouldn\u2019t be a \u201csmall job,\u201d but noted that other central libraries nationwide, from Austin to Boston, had upgraded their facilities \u201cwith positive results.\u201d<\/p>\n The master plan, too, pulled no punches<\/a>. <\/p>\n The city hasn\u2019t said how much it would cost to deal with the library\u2019s myriad issues. The plan notes only that bond programs have invested more than $9 million in repairs and upgrades since the library opened more than four decades ago, but that the building has never undergone a comprehensive renovation. <\/p>\n A 2018 facility condition assessment warned of \u201csignificant deficiencies,\u201d including a leaky roof; heating and cooling systems \u201cthat are aged, non-functioning, or obsolete\/operating on borrowed time\u201d; a long-outdated electrical system; and elevators \u201cstill relying on original motors and \u2018obsolete\u2019 controls.\u201d For starters.<\/p>\n The latest library system master plan includes this photo from inside the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library after a flooding incident.<\/p>\n From the Dallas Public Library Strategic + Facilities Plan<\/p>\n In that master plan, library staffers complained about broken elevators that make them feel unsafe. Community survey respondents complained of the building feeling unclean and outdated. One staffer fretted that the library\u2019s \u201cworld-class collection,\u201d which includes one of the 26 surviving broadside copies of the Declaration of Independence printed on July 4, 1776, is \u201cconstantly threatened by building catastrophes.\u201d<\/p>\n When I started digging into where rumors of the library\u2019s possible demise began, I was directed to the June 24 meeting of the Municipal Library Board<\/a>, where former Fort Worth library director Manya Shorr<\/a> introduced herself as the Dallas library system\u2019s new leader. Straight off, Shorr said she wanted to address the elephant in the room, \u201cwhich is that I closed the central library in Fort Worth.\u201d<\/p>\n She explained that city leaders had been approached by someone interested in buying the site and converting it into a mixed-use residential development. Selling it made sense, she said, because few people used the downtown library and it was \u201cshowing its age,\u201d despite being a decade newer than Dallas\u2019.<\/p>\n Turning her attention toward the J. Erik Jonsson, Shorr concurred with the master plan, telling the board that there are \u201ca lot of issues with this building \u2026 a beast of a building.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a building clearly designed for a paper-based world that we no longer live in,\u201d she said. \u201cSo there is space. We don\u2019t know what to do with nothing but space. It seems like there\u2019s a lot of deferred maintenance on this building, a lot of issues. And I think the conversation is worth having about this building.\u201d<\/p>\n But the city doesn\u2019t appear to be in any rush to have that talk.<\/p>\n Dallas City Hall and the downtown central library were intended to serve as two pieces of the same puzzle, as both were conceived by then-Mayor J. Erik Jonsson.<\/p>\n Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n At the end of last week, I sent Tolbert and other city officials an email asking about the issues at the library, and whether those, too, could one day force the city to consider moving out of the building. City spokesman Rick Ericson responded that city staff is focused solely on the deferred maintenance at City Hall, and that \u201cthe Central Library is not part of that maintenance review.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is part of the problem: If we\u2019re going to at least pretend a City Hall do-over is necessary to help remake the southern stretch of downtown, then shouldn\u2019t we be talking about the totality of the so-called Municipal District in danger of being dismantled? Making these decisions piecemeal isn\u2019t a vision. It\u2019s a recipe for chaos, skepticism and \u2014 yes \u2014 rumors.<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Y6R5AIPFNORRQNQRP75RE3UKYY.jpg\")
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