Something old, something new: LINC allows Greeley Tribune workers to say one last goodbye to their old building

Tourists descend the staircase in the LINC library, showing off its wide-open area that lead to "rivers" of books and DVDs. Water is a theme throughout the library. Photo by Dan England.

By Dan England

It would be a shame to talk about ghosts when one of the liveliest additions to Downtown Greeley in years will open this Saturday. So, let’s think of this as a rebirth and not a funeral. 

The LINC is, without a doubt, the coolest library I’ve ever seen. It is also where the Greeley Tribune stood for the 20 years I worked there and for a bit longer after we parted ways. Thursday the High Plains Library District gave us a free tour in acknowledgement of our time there. I saw old coworkers and friends, most of them both, and at times felt the past brush my heart. 

Most of the time, however, I saw progress. Progress can be hard, even unfortunate, but there are many times when it is welcome. This time it’s all three. 

There is nothing left, really, of the Tribune, at least as far as I can tell when I walked in, and this is a good thing. There is natural lighting, a rarity in buildings constructed before 2000, wide open spaces and a new car smell. That’s likely what you’ll notice when you first walk in, too, other than the staircase leading to a magic second floor that reminded me of the Children’s Museum. We will get to that in a little bit. First, let’s acknowledge the staircase. Stairs! The Tribune didn’t have a second floor. 

OK, so the library. Yes, it has books. It even has DVDs, probably more than any video rental store, if any of those are left. But saying the LINC has books and movies is like saying our solar system has our moon. Matthew Hortt, the executive director for the High Plains district, calls it an “activity hub.” The library is really just part of it. 

Let’s list some of the features: 

• Innovation Bays — These are areas where you can build things, including crafts and woodworking, and the district plans to help Greeley’s schools and the homebuilder’s association to teach trades to students for certificates or as a start to a career. But this isn’t all work and no play: Workbenches on the second floor have instructions and materials to put together a popsicle catapult. 

• A recording studio — For podcasting, audio recordings and video. You can use the library’s equipment with a little training, said James Melena, community relations and marketing manager for the district, but don’t be afraid to use your iPhone either. 

“The lighting in here will make anything look good,” Melena said during our tour. 

• Computer workstations and a 3D printer and engraver

• Places to relax — This includes an atrium in the center of the library with trees, a fireplace and places to sit. There are also study rooms and several meeting rooms. 

• A theater — There’s a small stage that could also work as a performance hall. Melena said the library would consider wedding events in this space. 

Tourists walk through a tunnel in the children's library to the storytime room in the LINC library in downtown Greeley, which opens Saturday. Photo by Dan England.

Art wraps its way around all these elements and the library itself. There will be a gallery for local artists along with the places to create your own. But you’ll find art predominantly in the places designed for children. 

The children’s library features a ceiling motif to mimic the Colorado skyline (especially at dawn and dusk), with clouds in another room for storytime (or naps, I thought, as the soft lighting began to work on my tired body after an early morning run).

Upstairs, however, is where the real magic starts. You can get there by climbing a contraption of nets and logs — which I did because I couldn’t help myself — or you can take the stairs. Former Greeley resident and world-renowned artist Wes Bruce built an art installation with water as the theme. Bruce, who helped design the library, used water as a theme throughout, paying tribute to our founders such as W.D. Farr. 

The installation is really a playground for both kids and adults (yay), but if you can pull yourself away, you can play with what may be the world’s largest Lite Brite, a wind tunnel or a paper airplane launcher. 

Occasionally I could feel the old Tribune speaking to me, such as when we congregated in the woodworking section and I could sense the faint rumbling of the old press. The press was a beast and yet a comforting place to hide from the occasional chaos of the newsroom and its constant demands before the Tribune sold it. Construction workers encountered 30 inches of concrete as they were tearing down our building to absorb the ink and vibrations from the beast. Removing it delayed construction by a few days. This, I have to say, made me smile. 

Then they led us to the end, a place called “Randy’s bench.” It’s a tribute to Randy Bangert, my longtime boss and former editor who died from cancer just short of his retirement a few years ago. The LINC is a bright, happy place, but Thursday’s gray rain seemed appropriate at this moment. 

As I said, this is a wonderful occasion, and the library — the LINC, more accurately — shouldn’t be about old ghosts. But Liz Munsterteiger noticed something in the new wonderful space Wes Bruce built. It’s a quote.

“We took all the broken things,” it reads, “and made something new.” 

Thanks, Wes. 

The LINC Library Innovation Center opens at 10 a.m. Saturday in downtown Greeley, at 501 8th Ave., the site of the old Greeley Tribune building. Admission is free.