At Carnegie One, the Former Pool Is Part of the Library’s Future

A swimming pool is an unlikely place to look for the future of a library. At Carnegie One in Braddock, the former pool became the Book Dive: a gathering space shaped by ramps and platforms inserted into an inherited room. The renovation architect, GBBN, describes the conversion as part of a wider effort to return previously underused space to public life. [1]

Explore the history and architecture in Braddock Carnegie Library: A Public Building Reopened for Everyday Life in the Research Library.

A reopening with a longer story

The library celebrated its grand reopening on May 22, 2025. This is a follow-up on that completed project, rather than an announcement of a new opening. WESA’s contemporaneous reporting described the return of the music hall and other rooms after years of partial repairs and restricted use. [2][3]

The change is easiest to understand through circulation. An accessible main entrance, a new elevator, and upgraded building systems brought more of the historic structure into everyday use. Those interventions are less photogenic than an auditorium, but they affect whether people can reach the activities the building now accommodates. [3]

Reuse that leaves evidence behind

GBBN’s account identifies salvaged bowling-alley boards reused as counters, cleaned and reinstalled glazed brick, and a printshop expanded into attic space. It also describes event rentals as a potential source of operating income. These are specific design and program decisions; the project description does not establish how much revenue the spaces now generate. [1]

Urban Lithograph’s reading is that the Book Dive makes the renovation’s approach especially clear. A former use remains recognizable through the room’s shape, while a different activity gives that shape a new purpose. The conversion allows people to encounter the building’s past without treating an obsolete function as a requirement for its future.

The next chapter is ordinary use

Carnegie One’s current website lists computers, printing, alternative lending, and STEAM programs, alongside its book collections. It identifies the main library at 419 Library Street, Braddock. Program availability and room access should be checked through the library’s calendar. [4]

A reopening is a milestone; a useful public building must also work on an ordinary day. Reading, making, performances, and gatherings ask different things of the same structure. The renovation’s lasting test is whether those uses can coexist and continue. Braddock now has more of its historic library available for that work.