> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.richmonder.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Richmond’s libraries have long been a place for soaking up knowledge. Now they’re soaking up runoff too. - URL: https://www.richmonder.org/richmonds-libraries-have-long-been-a-place-for-soaking-up-knowledge-now-theyre-soaking-up-runoff-too/ - Published: 2026-09-02T02:16:36.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-02T02:16:36.000Z - Description: Richmond’s public libraries have slowly been going greener. - Author: Sarah Vogelsong - Tags: Features, #lead Ever since the sweetspire, the switch grass, the sea oats and the sweetbay magnolias went in, the birds have been flocking back to the East End Library. “We’ve always had them to a certain extent,” said Adam Zimmerli, who manages the branch off North 25th Street in Church Hill. “But since the project, they’ve really enjoyed having a home.” At the Westover Hills Library south of the river, the story is much the same. There, so many birds now flutter around the rain garden that staff hung a row of bird photos in the window of the children’s area so that kids can identify each feathered friend. Neither situation is an accident. Since 2016, when construction began at Westover Hills, Richmond’s public libraries have slowly been going greener. Retention basins, rain gardens and runoff channels now capture and filter stormwater. New trees cast shade in neighborhoods where temperatures are high. Native plants have replaced imported species, drawing in pollinators, native insects and, in turn, all of those birds and other wildlife. The citywide initiative, known as [Greening Richmond Public Libraries](https://thejamesriver.org/greening-richmond-public-libraries/), “serves two big purposes,” said RPL Director Scott Firestine. “It makes our libraries more welcoming and inviting. And it helps the James River. And the James River is our most important resource in the city of Richmond.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/F86F64C9-9DE6-4698-A9E4-72F7D195C106_1_105_c.jpeg) Bird spotting is common from the window at the Westover Hills branch. So far, six of RPL’s neighborhood branches have been outfitted with green infrastructure. When work at the Hull Street and Belmont libraries concludes next year, all eight will be part of the city’s network of stormwater management, capturing and cleaning runoff before it flows into the James. Justin Doyle of the James River Association, one of the libraries’ key partners in the initiative along with the Department of Public Utilities, said the installations catch not only nitrogen and phosphorus — the primary nutrients that pollute the Chesapeake Bay — but also “anything that could potentially make its way into our storm sewers or local waterways,” like dirt, heavy metals and trash. And, in areas of Richmond where stormwater and sewage flow through the same pipes, the new infrastructure is “able to help reduce the volume of stormwater runoff entering the combined sewer system.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/49EACEB9-3AB2-4C8F-8D65-B74FAA05F3D2_1_201_a--1-.jpeg) Adam Zimmerli, East End branch manager In some cases, it has also reduced localized flooding. At Westover Hills, “the drainage setup has really helped prevent standing water, storm drains clogging, mosquitoes, all the things that come with that,” said Danielle Tarullo, the branch’s community services manager. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/B1F22969-EEF8-4DDD-8C75-665DED19A574_1_105_c.jpeg) Danielle Tarullo, Westover Hills community services manager At the East End Library, the slope of the parking lot away from North 25th Street meant that for many years, heavy rains would send water gushing toward the adjacent alleyway and into the yards of the houses that backed up to it. “Any time it would rain, their sump pumps were going overtime,” said Zimmerli. “As soon as (the project) was done, the neighbors over here commented to us that they no longer have flooded basements every time it rains.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/2FAE78BB-11B7-4AE7-8A4F-7349ED78A198_1_105_c.jpeg) With different sites and different problems have come different solutions. Each library plan has been crafted by Drew Harrigan, a landscape architect with Four Winds Design, and has been shaped by feedback from community members. “We all have a little bit of our own flavor and our own flair,” said Zimmerli. At the North Avenue branch, a curving sidewalk mimics the meandering of a river, while a graded rain garden offsets the absence of gutters. The Broad Rock branch repurposed granite slabs that had been artistically arranged into a sort of sundial arrangement — “We were never sure” what it was supposed to be, said Firestine — for stone benches. The large lot where the Ginter Park branch sits allowed the library to incorporate a shaded space for outdoor programs. And at East End, bioretention basins for capturing rainfall double as traffic-calming infrastructure to slow speeds along the well-trafficked 25th Street corridor. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/5EBF4838-1C06-4018-B035-9740A9B8CAFD_1_201_a.jpeg) Broad Rock's outdoor seating The architecture of the branches has also informed their landscape design. At the Westover Hills branch, “we have a very midcentury modern building and midcentury community, and the very defined areas and sculptural way they’ve created the garden helps maintain that look,” said Tarullo. “It’s very sectioned off,” she added. “It’s quite midcentury in that it’s got a lot of half-curves and kidney shapes.” Branch staff said patrons have mostly praised the changes, which have spurred other projects like the planting of additional street trees in the blocks surrounding East End and encouraged residents to start their own native and pollinator gardens. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/0EFB96A9-5517-439D-83C9-63971629D50E.jpeg) The Ginter Park branch “We used to have these big green globes, just like row upon row of these green globes, juniper bushes, that really didn't do anything for the beautification, and it definitely didn't do much for trying to really tap into the natural ecology,” said Zimmerli. The beauty of the new landscapes is the real selling point in many cases. Lenora Wesley, a senior library technician at Westover Hills, said she’s become so enamored of the hydrangeas planted in the rain garden that she takes a photo of herself in front of them every year and collects the blooms to beautify the library’s interior. Taken together, Firestine said all the careful design choices are aimed at creating “functional interesting landscapes to invite people into our buildings.” “People love libraries,” he said. “And the libraries that look good from the street they love even more.” [‘A fuller picture’: Library brings preservation tools to residents, filling gaps in Richmond’s historyThe Richmond Public Library’s “Memory Lab” isn’t just converting old photos and videos to digital formats — its librarians see it as helping to better tell the stories of Richmonders.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/icon/apple-touch-icon-1-afd613f4-a628-4d57-b6f9-2fb43899c098.png)The RichmonderPeggy Stansbery![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/thumbnail/IMG_2475-991d29c8-3172-4b5f-95c7-29fbd8ac7c53.JPG)](https://www.richmonder.org/a-fuller-picture-library-brings-preservation-tools-to-residents-filling-gaps-in-richmonds-history/) *Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at* [*svogelsong@richmonder.org*](mailto:svogelsong@richmonder.org)