Nashville’s Main Library targets end-of-month reopening — but it’s ‘fluid’

Nashville’s Main Library is scheduled to re-open at the end of the month.

It’s been closed since mid-June, after the parking garage that serves the library caught fire, destroying two floors of parking and burning multiple cars. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

The blaze wasn’t in the library (it was contained to the garage, which is operated by the Nashville Downtown Partnership), but parts of the downtown library were damaged. Most of the library experienced “very light soot and smoke” — where smoke residue closely resembles typical dust. Almost all materials — 99%, according to the library — will be able to be restored through light cleaning. And air quality has returned to normal.

The bulk of the damage was contained to the auditorium and conference center, which, when the library reopens, will be blocked off for long-term restoration.

This is one of the reasons why, at a Tuesday library board meeting, Director Terri Luke described the reopening as a “fluid process.”

“We continue to meet with our experts to make sure that we are ready to open,” Luke said. “Because we do not want to go into that building and then say, ‘Oh, by the way, now we have to shut down for another two weeks.’ ”

The 150-person team cleaning up the library is led by Bob Zaiatz. He told the board that what could delay reopening is not contamination, air quality or safety — the library is structurally sound. Rather, it’s planning the repairs that could be an issue.

The library only has one freight elevator — which is needed to transport equipment and materials. That elevator is located in the heavily impacted area.

“To bring in new ceiling tiles, new painting, stage equipment — there’s all kinds of different components that may need to come out — and there’s a bottleneck at that one freight elevator,” Zaiatz said. “I’m sure you can imagine, if you guys chose to remodel your entire auditorium or conference center, you’d probably spend six months to a year planning it. We have the task of just trying to get it done.”

Still, the library is targeting July 29 as a reopening date for everything except the auditorium and conference room. Of course, patrons will have significantly less access to parking, given that the garage is closed indefinitely.

The board is awaiting updates from the Nashville Department of Transportation on the status of the garage. But some members are concerned about the effect that parking — and the current closure — could have on patronage.

“My concern is that once you lose customers, you never get them back,” said board member Keith Simmons. “And, you know, it’s not easy to come downtown anyway. Now parking is going to even be a bigger issue than it’s always been … I’m just afraid that Main will languish after this because people just get out of the habit of coming down.”

The library’s communication manager said that across the library system borrowing numbers in the last month have been up from earlier in the year.