Billie Jean King Main Library

The new Billie Jean King Main Library is no longer the traditional library of decades past. Located in the heart of downtown Long Beach, it is designed to provide a welcoming environment and flexible space for more than 1,000 visitors daily. The distinctive and easily recognizable interior maximizes usable area, enhances accessibility, improves staff efficiency, and incorporates state-of-the-art timber construction. The library offers a rich variety of activities, of which reading books and browsing shelves are only a small part of the experience. To attract the community, the library features diverse functional spaces such as a family learning center, children's reading area, veterans' resource room, and a multi-purpose hall with its own entrance. The entire building also includes a makerspace for video editing, 3D printing, and robotics. Most importantly, visitors can browse more than 300,000 volumes on bookshelves that span two floors, including what Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia calls one of the largest comic book and graphic novel collections in Southern California. Moving through a two-story skylight that opens to the sky, the design by SOM creates a bright, open interior that invites exploration. The project represents a new generation of public libraries that combine digital innovation, community programming, and architectural excellence.