HCH photo

At your service: From left, Larry Osborne, Daniel Gilmore, Rachel San Agustin (seated), Sharon LePage, and Robyn Nelson at the circulation desk of Chaminade’s new Sullivan Family Library.

Chaminade prepares for the grand opening of the Sullivan Family Library and information resource center

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Sullivan Family Library Description: library and information services resource center Cost: $14.8 million Size: 30,000 square feet Noteworthy: The largest academic building on campus Features: open-plan library stack and study areas, multimedia rooms, 40-station computer lab, state-of-the-art technology, substantial networking conduits and raceways, back-up generator, central air conditioning Inventory: 34,000 electronic books, 70,000 print books, 270 print journals, 19,000 online journals Additional: 25,000 square foot plaza still under construction The dedication Date: 11 a.m., April 25 Special guests: Gov. Linda Lingle, Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona, and Mayor Mufi Hannemann Blessing: Bishop Larry Silva Hawaiian blessing: Marcia Bulosan and Chaminade’s hula Halau Special opening displays: Brother Bertram Photo Exhibit, Bishop Museum’s “Ka Nupepa” historic Hawaiian language newspapers exhibit, student work in research, interior design, art and service-learning Additional information: free, open to the public, limited seating and parking, reservations requested by April 18, rsvp@chaminade.edu, or call Lesley-Anne Loon, (808) 735-4816 President’s quote “The new Sullivan Family Library will provide members of the Chaminade community with an expanded learning environment that will alter the way knowledge is acquired on and off campus.” —Chaminade president Sue Wesselkamper

A gray rain drizzled over the men in hardhats working on the black rocks and soil that will soon support a spacious plaza fronting Chaminade University of Honolulu’s newest addition — the Sullivan Family Library. The structure stands as the tallest and largest on campus, a three-story citadel of knowledge cut into the slope behind the university’s main buildings.

Two and a half weeks before its April 25 dedication, a stream of students mixed with a trickle of workers entering the second level’s main doors. The library has been open to students and faculty since March 31, even as finishing construction work continued inside and out.

On the top floor, at the makai end of the long stacks of books, Kandace Liu and Lenora Acidera discussed biology problems at a small table strewn with papers, books and backpacks, ignoring the perfect view of Diamond Head in the windows behind them. Other students studied a few tables down.

Acidera, a sophomore biology major, has been at the library “every day” since it opened.

What does she like about the new building?

“It’s big!”

Liu, a senior and also a biology major, smiled and nodded in agreement.

Acidera said that most of her friends now regularly use the new facility.

“It’s a gathering place,” she said.

State of the art

The Hawaii Catholic Herald was given a tour of the new building on April 9 by Larry Osborne, Chaminade’s Dean of Information Services and the Library, and Daniel Gilmore, the university’s Vice President of Finances and Facilities.

Like the other buildings on campus, the library is cream colored and topped with red Spanish tile, its pillars and angles and arches matching the Mediterranean muscle of the older university halls.

The structure is dug horizontally into the Kalaepohaku slope above Kaimuki that is home to the Chaminade campus. At its foot, the library looms three stories above the road, while its top level face gives the impression of a single floor.

Each of the three floors has an entrance.

The plaza in front of the second floor main entrance will have terraced lawns and lava rock retaining walls. A niche awaits the statue of Father Chaminade, the French priest who established the Marianist order that founded the university.

Inside, the main rooms are spacious. The walls are painted a calm pale green and contrasting teal. The bluish-gray carpet with its pattern of wavy lines offers a subtle aquatic feel. The shelves and other hard furniture are a non-assertive blond. The light from rows of florescent ceiling fixtures diffuse off white ceiling tiles, filling the area with a soft luminosity perfect for reading.

The 70,000 books are all in place, moved in three days from the old Sullivan library in Henry Hall, one level down.

Osborne described the new building, which took two years to build, as “state of the art.”

It’s flexible enough to accommodate new and future technologies, he said. It boasts the latest in fiber-optic and wireless capabilities, and has plenty of capacity for whatever is coming down the pike.

Gilmore said it is significant that “our newest and finest facility is the library and information technology center.”

“We have the most prized possession of any campus of this size [in Hawaii],” he said.

Osborne added, “It also has one of the best views of any campus in the islands.

“We are so proud of this place,” he said.

Two major donors

Osborne said that the construction of a new library was his “first assignment” when he arrived at Chaminade nine years ago from the University of Hawaii.

He wrote up a proposal for university president Sue Wesselkamper and executive vice president of finance and provost Marianist Brother Bernard Ploeger to shop around to potential donors.

They received an enthusiastic response from the family of Maurice Sullivan, the late Foodland supermarket founder. The Sullivans are longtime supporters of Chaminade and the old library that they helped expand in 1978 and which carried the family name.

Also getting on board was Atlantic Philanthropies, the global charitable enterprise of Chuck Feeney, the low-profile founder of Duty Free Shoppers who had been very generous to Chaminade before.

Osborne said that Feeney, who has the reputation of being a hands-on humanitarian and is no stranger to the Chaminade campus, appreciated the university’s honest and open approach to development.

“We tell him what we want to spend the money for, and then we spend it for what we said we were going to spend it for, and then we show him how we spent it,” he said.

The library and its complementary plaza cost $14.8 million. The Sullivans contributed $6 million and Atlantic Philanthropies put in $8 million. The balance came from interest earned from the donated funds and income from tax-free bonds.

The new structure will continue to carry the Sullivan name with the addition of the word “Family,” as Maurice’s wife and children continue their generous guardianship of the facility.

The building has 30,000 square feet of floor space, more than two-thirds of which make up the library itself with the remainder on the bottom floor housing university support facilities.

Librarian Val Coleman, who ran the old Sullivan library for 19 years, is very impressed with her new working environment.

“It is amazing,” she said, peering over a chest-high stack of encyclopedias. “We have a lot of space to expand, a lot of work space.”

The old library was only 8,000 square feet.

She repeats the phrase she hears most often by students exploring the new facility: “This is awesome!”

Restrooms and offices

The library’s current director Sharon LePage, who manages a staff of seven, pointed out some of the building’s bonuses for employees used to formerly cramped conditions.

The 40-station computer lab is fast becoming a popular place to study.

She pointed left. “Restrooms!” She gestured toward the back. “A conference room!”

“Offices!” she said, “We have offices.”

The students also have a glass-enclosed computer lab with 40 stations and a help desk, and private multimedia group study rooms. The bottom floor will have computer equipped classrooms and other high-tech facilities.

LaPage explained that, because the building was designed by a library consultant, it lends itself to a more efficient flow of materials. She said a future goal would be to add 30,000 to 40,000 more books.

As for the flow of students, there is a sense that many more are using the new facility.

“What we really feel is that the students are really thrilled,” LaPage said.

And the faculty too, she added.

Rachel San Agustin, a junior accounting major staffing the circulation desk, liked the fact that the library offered a lot of resources in one place, like the computer lab and study rooms.

It’s a better place to study and to prepare presentations for class, she said.

Another student assistant, junior Robyn Nelson, who is majoring in English, said the library is “a lot more organized and things are easier to find.”

“And it’s just more classy looking,” she said.

Chaminade’s vice president of finances and facilities Daniel Gilmore couldn’t agree more. If a school had the choice of where to put its finest facilities and best technology, the library should be the place, he said.

“And when you look at any other campus in the state, we have the finest library for any campus our size,” he said.

“We definitely invested the money in the right place,” he said.