Long isolated on the north edge of downtown, near the Bataan Memorial Trainway tunnel (1950) traversing downtown in a below-grade open cut, this low-key library is a modern regionalist interpretation of the indigenous cultures of the Southwest. Offset blocks of different heights clad in a subtle grid of fossilized limestone are fronted by a low portal that is supported on coursed rock piers of Mount Franklin limestone. The fascia and underside of the loggia’s exposed concrete roof slab are decorated with reliefs evoking petroglyphs by architect and archaeologist C. Ewing Waterhouse, Carroll and Daeuble’s designer. Artist Tom Lea executed the bas-relief of an owl (symbolizing wisdom) on the south end of the facade and in 1956 donated a mural that is his interpretation of the layered mountains, valleys, rocks, and cactus of the region.
A 40,000-square-foot addition of 2006, on the site of El Paso’s Carnegie library of 1904 (1968 demolished) has a west entrance facing Cleveland Square Park composed of a series of facade panels, each slightly offset from the next and each with a different cladding, including glass, copper, stucco, and metal. At 504 N. Oregon Street opposite the library is the urbane, three-story Hotel Linden (1910).