Huntington Library Announces Modernization Plans
Library Exhibition Hall and West Hall, San Marino, California.
The Huntington will begin an extensive renovation of its Library building in spring 2026 to revitalize the Library’s exhibition halls and replace outdated back-of-house space with modern facilities serving both the Library and Art Museum.
The unified Library/Art Building (LAB) will be a 83,000-square-foot modernization that honors the historic structure designed in 1919 by architect Myron Hunt, while reimagining its spaces for interdivisional collaboration. The design is being led by RAMSA (Robert A.M. Stern Architects) with Samuel Anderson Architects is providing expertise on collections storage and conservation studio design.
The proposal, as The Huntington nears completion of its $126.6 million fundraising campaign, reflects the institution’s strategic plan which calls for integrated, cross-divisional approaches under the guiding principle of 'One Huntington' at its location in San Marino, California.
The LAB will replace legacy book stacks with state-of-the-art storage for more than eight linear miles of the Library’s book and manuscript collections, along with the Art Museum’s 38,000 works on paper. Light-filled, modernized spaces for consultation, collaboration, and meetings will support cross-disciplinary exchange among staff, fellows, and general readers. The building will also include a dedicated conservation studio for treating paintings and objects.
“This is the most ambitious building project in The Huntington’s history,” said President Karen R. Lawrence. “It reflects our commitment to stewardship, scholarship, and public engagement, and to creating spaces that will serve our collections and our communities for the next century.”
The Huntington ranks among the world’s great independent research libraries, holding a growing collection of 12 million rare books, manuscripts, photographs, prints, drawings, and ephemera. Each year, the Library welcomes thousands of researchers, including more than 175 fellows in the nation’s largest humanities research program.
While the Library’s exhibition halls are closed for renovation, visitors can experience some of its most iconic works in the exhibition series Stories from the Library, located in the Huntington Art Museum.
A new gallery dedicated to the history of science will replace the former Beautiful Science exhibition with Worlds Unfolding: Science on the Page. The new installation will showcase the Library’s extensive holdings in science, technology, and medicine. It will feature a diverse selection of medieval through modern works on topics ranging from astronomy, anatomy, and geology to electricity, the aerospace industry, and futuristic dream worlds of science fiction.
