The Denver Public Library’s central branch, Denver’s flagship library, will fully reopen following a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sunday.

The Central Library, 10 W. 14th Ave. off Broadway, has been under construction and mostly closed to the public since 2020. Serving the downtown area, the Central Library could fit all 26 other Denver Library locations inside its cavernous 500,000-square-foot area.

It is home to administrative services for the entire system, the main delivery hub and the central node for business activities. Of course, the public won’t see that part of the building as the central branch will function as a normal library.

Home of the Western History and Genealogy Department, now known as the Special Collections Department, the building designed by architect Michael Graves includes a hub area for children and teens, and a public technology center with about 90 computers available for public use.

The four, free-to-use public phones are used all the time, Central Library Director Rachel Fewell said.

The complete reopening greatly excites Fewell, who takes immense pride in the work the central branch does.

“It’s so cool to walk around the building and see so many flavors of humanity doing their own thing and having a great time and getting the information they need,” she said. “I am super proud that it’s a place where truly anyone can come and find something for themselves. I feel very lucky to work in a huge urban central library.”

People use the library for a variety of things, she added. On a daily basis — even during the limited openings — she would see families come and go for story times, homeless people come in to find support and older residents pass through to look into their genealogy records.

As with much of life in 2020, operations at the Central Library were halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But Fewell said there was a silver lining.

Construction and improvements to the central library had been in the works since 2017 when money from the Elevate Denver bond was unlocked for library projects. The bond has generated close to $1 billion, providing money for about 500 different projects throughout the city including $431 million for transportation projects, $117 million for cultural projects and a dedicated $69 million for libraries.

When the COVID-19 shutdowns occurred, the city was in the design phase for the Central Library renovation. Fewell said this was “fortunate” in some ways.

“We could keep working on (the design) in virtual spaces but we were not ready with shovels in the ground when the library closed, and we weren’t able to start working on the building until the end of 2020,” she said. “We had moved around a few parts of the package because we were trying to figure out if we could get some space open in the library while we continued the rest of the renovation, so that was our challenge.”

Part of the solution was getting the library’s elevators fixed first, as those would be essential for construction to progress smoothly. After that, the library’s restrooms became the focus, especially those on the first floor, so the library could have a small space open to provide services, Fewell said.

This partial closure continued through construction as the library attempted to keep access to computers and other resources open to the public. There were occasional full closures, however. That is not to say there weren’t additional challenges, and Fewell indicated there were “so many” to overcome.

“It’s really tough to coordinate the operations of a busy service — we see hundreds of people per day even in our small first-floor footprint — and negotiate construction,” she said. “Just the logistics of doing a renovation within a building and then trying to provide a service out of the same building. … There were just hiccups every day.”

One of the most significant “hiccups” was a fiscal one. The library didn’t have all the funding it needed at the beginning of the project. In many ways, library staff were laying the track as their renovation train ran along it. Through various means, including a property tax approved in 2022, and donations from non-profit supporters, the library was able to gather the money needed to complete the renovations.

The renovated library will feature a new grand staircase and a place called “The Commons,” which a library spokesperson described as “downtown’s living room.”

“On the second floor, we’re debuting 15 new community study and meeting rooms and our brand new Teen Library,” Denver Public Libraries Communications Manager Olivia Gallegos said. “Folks will also be welcomed with what they know and love about their Central Library like our Reference Department, Special Collections and Archives, Community Technology Center, and more. There will be something to experience on every public floor of the library.”

To celebrate, there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony Sunday between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., Gallegos said, and will fully reopen after 11 a.m.

In addition to “family-friendly fun,” the ceremony includes giveaways, refreshments and entertainment. The library will also have a limited edition library card featuring artwork centered around the Central Library available to residents.

The renovations may also compliment the major, $570 million downtown revitalization proposed by Mayor Mike Johnston. Voters in the downtown core, roughly 2,500 of them, will vote on whether to allow the Denver Downtown Development Authority to expand to cover the rest of downtown following its successful restoration of Union Station.

Johnston has been in regular contact with library staff and is “very invested” in the completion, Fewell said.

“I’m really excited to see what the downtown revitalization fund can bring after the library reopens,” she said. “What’s that going to look like? How much more can that reenergize downtown?”