The Laney Library & Learning Resource Center will be the first major addition to the campus since it was originally built in 1970. Located along 7th Street in the southeast quadrant of the campus, the building will create a new edge and “gateway” to Laney College, helping to forge a new identity for a campus that is largely closed off to its surroundings. The project will replace the existing library, currently embedded within the campus core, with a new community-facing facility that allows for greater transparency along the street edge while opening toward the natural landscape of the Lake Merritt Channel to the east. The use of lightweight terra cotta screening adds solar protection and texture while relating to the prevailing brick clad buildings on campus.

The 76,000 sf facility will house state-of-the-art library spaces, a teacher learning and training center, a media center, a tutoring resource center, and drop-in computer labs. The building will bring together tutorial spaces currently dispersed across campus and allow different programs to share resources.

The project is a collaboration with Noll & Tam Architects and is targeting LEED Gold certification.