Regional Industry & News

Imagination Center Library opens this Friday in Reindahl Park — and it's been nearly two decades in the making. The idea for the building was born around the time Madison got its last public library, which is a westside branch that opened in October 2000.

A collaboration between Madison Public Library (MPL), City of Madison Engineering, Madison Parks and the Madison Public Library Foundation, the Imagination Center addresses a lack of public community spaces on Madison’s northeast side. The design, resources and programming for the indoor-outdoor library were carefully curated with the community in mind.

“[Management at the MPL] is always looking at areas that could benefit from having a library,” says branch supervisor Rosemary Medrano. “That area was identified as a resource desert, and the neighborhood had a lot of things that they were looking for from the city to feel supported.”

MPL spent years attending the Greater Sandberg Neighborhood Association’s meetings, hosting events and exchanging emails with northeast side residents, gathering the feedback necessary to design a space that would truly serve its community.

With $18 million in funding pulled together, largely thanks to the Madison Public Library Foundation, the City of Madison Capital Budget and the Wisconsin Department of Administration, In May of 2025, MLP broke ground on the new library at Reindahl Park — a location selected to improve the northeast side's outdoor amenities, too.

“The pavilion was ready for a revitalization. When they were looking for a place to put a library, this area just made sense,” Medrano says. As part of the renovation, Reindahl Park received an upgraded playground, with plans for a new accessible play area to be added in the next year.

Along with typical library resources like books, public meeting spaces and internet access, the Imagination Center will offer a host of community-driven programming. “This area has a lot of immigrant families, a lot of whom are Spanish speaking,” Medrano says, so the library is partnering with a nonprofit organization, Literacy Network, to host English classes for adults, with built-in childcare available for parents in attendance. There will also be multicultural and bilingual story times for children.

Because of its unique indoor-outdoor setting, MPL prioritized sustainable features in the library’s design, including solar panels, carpet made from recycled materials and native species planted around the building. A sculpture, titled “The Passage of Being” by artist Nate Page stands in the library’s front yard, representing the intersection of community and nature — another ode to its natural surroundings.

Local art will be showcased inside the library as well. A first for a Madison library, the new branch features an “Imagination Wall,” which is an embedded project wall designed to host a rotating array of artists. Plus, the library will host art and nature-focused programming for children, according to Medrano.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 25 from 3-8 p.m. will feature speakers like Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, library card sign-ups with special prizes and an outdoor movie screening in Reindahl Park.

Lily Spanbauer is associate editor at Madison Magazine.