Castle Rock library demolition underway

The Castle Rock library is being demolished this week to make way for a parking lot for the new, larger library building.Photo byDouglas County Libary District

By Mike McKibbin / NewsBreak Denver / Aug. 1, 2023

[CASTLE ROCK, COLO.] — By the first weekend in August, the 47-year-old Castle Rock library building should be a pile of rubble.

The facility was built as a Safeway in 1976 and renovated into a library in 2003.

A news release from the Douglas County Library District noted with the completion of a new, $26.5 million, 62,000-square-foot library building on the same 100 S. Wilcox St. property, demolition is underway on the Castle Rock Philip S. Miller library to make way for a parking lot for the new library.

Six-week demolition project

According to Rick O’Dell, the district’s interim special projects manager, the building’s exterior tilt-up wall panels and roof will be dropped and pushed into the building footprint using earth-moving equipment, starting at the northwest corner of the building.

The knocked-down exterior and interior wall sections and roof debris will be scooped up using earth-moving equipment and dumped into large trailers for removal from the site. Demolition of the concrete floor slab will then begin. O’Dell said the entire demolition process will take approximately six weeks.

Fransen Pittman General Contractors will then regrade the area to a new elevation, rough-in site improvements for the new parking lot, pour concrete curb and gutter sidewalks, roll asphalt, and finish the new 220-space parking lot. That will include striping, lighting and landscaping.

The expected completion of the parking lot project is Thanksgiving, O’Dell added.

Earth-moving equipment tears down part of the 47-year-old Castle Rock library building to make way for a new library parking lot.Photo byDouglas County Library District

New library's grand opening on Aug. 26

Construction of the new building began on March 30, 2022, and the current building closed in May of this year to move into the new structure.

Its features are consistent with the district’s other library locations, including a drive-through book return, interactive children’s playscape, 10 study rooms, and five larger meeting and event spaces.

The library will continue to house the district-wide services teams, archives and local history collections and the Sjostrom History Lounge reading room.

The grand opening of the new Castle Rock library is Saturday, Aug. 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to use downtown public parking lots and garages while the new building’s parking lot is under construction.