The 1972 downtown library—an opaque brick box—occupied a pivotal part of the River Walk. So when the City built a new library, it held a design competition to convert the old one into a center for trade and tourism. The design solution removed half of the brick, added large expanses of glass, and included a new pedestrian street that cuts through the building. The new 100,000-square-foot facility, above a marina for the City’s riverboats, animates the riverside site and responds to the urban character at the street level.