In Boston, home may be where the books are.
In three neighborhoods—West End, Upham's Corner and Chinatown—the city is moving forward with plans to build new public libraries and affordable housing. The idea is rooted in necessity: Record high rents, limited land and aging public buildings have pushed Boston to rethink how public assets can serve more than one purpose at a time.
“Libraries are often a neighborhood's most valuable asset,” says Joe Baker, senior development specialist for the Mayor's Office of Housing Development. In recent years, he said, “there has been a real push to rethink how city-owned land and buildings can be tools to meet housing needs.” Combining the two, he adds, “is not difficult. This is how cities have always grown.”
Why did we write this
For many, this sounds like a dream: living above a library. A number of major U.S. cities are experimenting with such mixed-use buildings as a way to add affordable housing and develop community.
This philosophy reflects a broader resurgence in mixed-use development. This was once common but gradually disappeared as zoning regulations divided cities into separate residential, commercial and civic zones. Now, as land becomes scarce and communities demand more walkable neighborhoods, cities are once again placing housing above libraries, clustering transportation near apartments, and even placing houses above post offices.
Proponents say the benefits go beyond efficiency. Mixed-use buildings can increase density, support sustainability goals and strengthen neighborhood identity. “Integrating residential and community centers like libraries is a true win-win and a return to this historic development model,” says Catherine Burgess, vice president of Smart Growth America. Libraries, she adds, “improve feelings of well-being, connection and belonging.”
Boston Public Library President David Leonard sees the trend as part of a broader shift in the profession. “Over the last 10 years we have seen the emergence… of a need to value more the role of our civic space,” he said on Boston Public Radio. in 2023. Libraries, he noted, will increasingly be located “next to various types of civic infrastructure, be it a community center, a radio station or current housing.”
“The library becomes an extension of the home”
Over the past 25 years, more than 1,800 apartments have been built in the United States in structures that combine new housing and new libraries. According to the Urban Institute. Many of these apartments were affordable.
Boston began exploring the idea of combining housing and libraries in 2018 through a partnership between the city's Housing Innovation Lab and the Boston Public Library. The initiative identified city-owned sites that could support both civic space and new homes.
Around the same time Chicago developed three library facilities that opened in 2019. Each facility combines modern library equipment and affordable housing.
“It was great. It put a small community right where the library is, and incorporating it into the larger community was very successful,” said Chicago Public Library Director of Government and Public Relations Patrick Molloy. Beacon of General Welfare. “You just have to find the best combinations,” whether it’s housing, child care or even retail.
In Boston, three libraries were ultimately selected through a public request for proposals.
“We noticed that there was a lot of new rental housing proposed in the immediate area, but very few homeownership opportunities,” says Taylor Bearden, a partner at Civico Development, the firm leading the Uphams Corner Library redevelopment. “This imbalance was really glaring.”
Plans call for 33 affordable apartments – both rent and own – above the historic 1904 library. The homes will have a variety of floor plans, including three bedrooms, two bedrooms and studios, for families earning between 80% and 100% of the area median income.
To preserve the walkability and character of the area, the new apartments will rise above the library's historic façade. The goal, Mr. Burden said, is to preserve the building as a civic landmark that remains “contextual and true to the character of the area.”
He adds that integrated projects offer a rare opportunity to create a true “third space” that does not require transactions or paid memberships. “The public library is one of the few truly free sanctuaries left,” he says. “Imagine how the library becomes an extension of the home for residents.”
New library coming to Chinatown
Nowhere is this shift more profound than in Chinatown, where residents have waited nearly seven decades for a permanent library.
It's been a long time coming for residents like Cynthia Yee, who grew up on Hudson Street, where the new Chinatown branch will be located. At the groundbreaking this fall, Ms. Yee called the moment “a step toward spatial justice.”
There was once a library on Tyler Street in Chinatown. which closed in 1956 during the construction of a freeway that cut through the area, obliterating homes and public landmarks. Ms. Yee remembers walking there as a child in the 1950s. “The playground equipment was worn out, the books were used frequently, but the neighbors were always alive,” she recalls. It was “warm and cozy – like at school.”
Since the closure, the district has relied on mobile book clinics and pop-up library displays.
The situation changed in 2013. About 1,000 Chinatown residents began a letter-writing campaign to petition then-Mayor Marty Walsh, who promised to bring the library back. The new Hudson Street branch, expected to be completed in 2027, will include 110 affordable apartments.
Is urban planning returning to its roots?
Across the country, cities are rethinking rules that limit population density. Experts say it no longer makes sense to reserve large tracts of land for single-family homes. Now, as rents have risen and shortages worsened in recent years, states and municipalities are loosening zoning restrictions and allowing more multifamily housing to be built.
Massachusetts and California are offering incentives to build near transportation and public amenities—part of “reimagining public assets as platforms for equity,” says Solomon Green, executive director of land and communities at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Boston's early trials turned political this year. In October the city council unanimously adopted ordinance requiring that vacant city-owned buildings be assessed for affordable housing before any other reuse proposal — an effort that officials describe as a “public purpose move.”
Mixed-use development is in many ways a return to the original growth of cities.
“The problem is that in many places mixed-use developments are still illegal,” Mr. Green says. Early zoning laws were designed to protect residents from industrial pollution and noise, but they also blocked innovation that combined civil and residential uses.
These laws may still create obstacles. In Boston, all three library projects required special state legislation to bypass the competitive bidding process and work directly with community organizations.
For Ms. Yee, a Chinatown resident, the project represents a long-overdue recognition that equality begins with space. The symbolism runs deep: housing and books, family and learning, all occupying the same place in an area once devastated by urban renewal.
“It's not just about convenience,” she says. “It’s about being seen.”
