A new library and community building at 10 Rose Lane in Larkspur has picked up an Excellence in Construction award, recognizing a design-build project years in the making that reshaped a vacant city-owned site into a flexible public gathering space. The building, developed by Alten Construction and architecture firm Noll & Tam, features deep grey engineered wood screen walls, large sliding doors that open interior spaces to the outdoors, and an open floor plan meant to keep sightlines clear across the facility.
The recognition was detailed in a project writeup published by the North Bay Business Journal, which credited the design team with using a restrained material palette, natural light and connections to the landscape throughout the building. According to that account, the project team is the City of Larkspur as owner and Alten Construction LLC as developer and builder, with Chris Noll serving as project architect for Noll & Tam Architects. The same writeup lists Manuela King as landscape architect with RHAA Landscape Architecture + Planning, David Mar as structural engineer with Mar Structural Design, Courtney Chuenyane as electrical engineer with Brokaw Design, and Jonathan Tang as civil engineer with BKF Engineers.
The building includes flexible public spaces, community meeting rooms, children's and teens' areas, study spaces, and indoor-outdoor connections, per the project description. Outside, the site is designed around a habitat garden, outdoor gathering areas, landscaping, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, parking and EV charging. The North Bay Business Journal piece notes the project was made possible through a partnership involving the City of Larkspur, the Commons Foundation, state funding, community donors and the design-build team itself.
A Years-Long Path From Contract to Construction
The project's roots trace back to late 2023, when the Larkspur City Council voted to authorize the city manager to finalize a design-build contract with Alten Construction, a deal Marin Independent Journal reported at the time was valued around $12.7 million. By February 2024, city records show the Larkspur City Council had formally awarded Alten Construction a design-build contract for the new library and community space in the amount of $13,152,000, according to a city budget document. That same meeting set an aggregate budget across six related Commons projects at $16,115,164, the city document states.
Design work continued through the first half of 2024. The Marin Independent Journal reported in July of that year that the preliminary design was complete and set to be released that fall, describing Alten Construction of Richmond and Berkeley-based Noll & Tam as the city's development team. Reported building dimensions shifted across sources over that period — Marin Independent Journal coverage described the library at points as roughly 6,845 square feet paired with either a 1,655-square-foot or 2,500-square-foot community space, while a separate city planning document put the proposed structure at 8,970 square feet on a 2.39-acre site, and elsewhere in that same document described an 8,900-square-foot library integrated with city-funded community rooms.
Budget Gaps and Added Amenities
Money matters surfaced again in fall 2024, when a city budget document identified a $400,000 shortfall attributable to landscaping improvements that had gone unfunded. Staff recommended drawing $255,642 from the Measure G Fund to cover part of the gap, including $150,000 earmarked for a solar-powered backup battery system and $105,642 for a Risk IV structural upgrade, according to the city of Larkspur's own records.
City planning documents from that period also described a project built with room to grow. The building's design allowed for a future 10,000-square-foot expansion to the east, contingent on additional parking, and the project included solar panels and a 40 kW system. Eight EV chargers were installed, and the site includes a habitat garden.
Landscape Design Built Around a Town Green
Landscape architecture firm RHAA, which worked on the project, describes a central lawn area functioning as a town green that supports community functions and events. An adjacent terrace and lawn were designed to provide outdoor library space, while a second terrace outside the multipurpose room was meant to further support the building's use for events, according to RHAA's project description. The firm also notes that a future Phase 2 area is planned as a habitat garden featuring natural stone seating areas and native plantings.
On the regulatory side, the Larkspur Planning Commission found the project exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act and approved it; Commissioner Wagstaff was recused.
Part of a Broader North Bay Library Moment
Larkspur's award comes a year after a similar honor went to the San Rafael Downtown Library Renovation at 1100 E St., a project developed by the City of San Rafael's public library system with Unger Construction as builder, Noll & Tam Architects again serving as architect, and Capital Engineering as electrical engineer, as reported by the Press Democrat. That library, originally built in 1909 with funds from Andrew Carnegie, was renovated with the goal of preserving its historic integrity while modernizing it for current users — adding a wheelchair lift, new HVAC, fire alarm, plumbing, telecommunications and audio-visual systems, while preserving the iconic reading room and expanding its Memory Lab.
Together, the two projects point to a wave of library investment across Marin County, from ground-up construction in Larkspur to historic preservation in San Rafael. Both relied on the same architecture firm, Noll & Tam, underscoring its recurring role in shaping how North Bay residents experience public library spaces heading into 2027.
