In 2006, the Julia Ideson Library Preservation Partners (JILPP) was formed as a Texas not-for-profit corporation. Chaired by Phoebe Tudor, this group accepted the challenge of raising the funds necessary to:

1. Build a 21,500 square foot state-of-the-art, environmentally sensitive archival storage wing on the south side of the building, following the original plans of Ralph Adams Cram. The wing will be the new home of the valuable archives of the Houston Public Library’s Houston Metropolitan Research Center. Highlights of this important collection include approximately:
   
   
   • 4 million photographic images of historic events and everyday life in Houston and the area
   • 125,000 architectural drawings from more than 250 architects, the second-largest collection in the State of Texas, information about which can be accessed online at http://www2.houstonlibrary.org/cgi-bin/archives/architecture.pl
   • 7,000 volumes of rare children’s books
   • 12,000 volumes of rare books and 3,000 rare pamphlets in the John Milsaps collection, first donated to the library in 1904
   • Holdings in HMRC’s Special Collections (rare books) include a 1615 edition of Don Quixote, a fifteenth-century illuminated Book of Hours from Flanders, and first editions of Moby Dick and Alice In Wonderland
   • More than 300 rare maps of Houston, Texas and the Southwest dating from 1561
     
     
2. Preserve the architectural integrity of the original building (66,000 square feet) and restore its public spaces to their original grandeur.
   
   
3. Create a welcoming environment, including a public reading room in the historic Texas Room and beautifully landscaped gardens so that more Houstonians may enjoy this historic building and its grounds.

The Julia Ideson building, located at 500 McKinney, was designed by the noted Boston architecture firm Cram & Ferguson and opened in 1926 as the centerpiece of a planned five-building civic center in downtown Houston.

Ralph Adams Cram was one of the country’s foremost practitioners of Gothic and other revival styles. In the case of this landmark building, he utilized a Spanish Renaissance style appropriate to the city’s Texas heritage. He also designed the campus plan for Rice University and Trinity Episcopal Church in Houston, the campus of Princeton University in New Jersey, the United States Military Academy at West Point, and St. John the Divine Church in New York City. He collaborated on the design of the Julia Ideson Building with the distinguished Houston architect William Ward Watkin, a professor of architecture at the Rice Institute (now Rice University) and a former employee of Cram’s.

Due to the economic crash of 1929, and the Great Depression, Cram & Ferguson’s total vision was not realized; when additional civic buildings were erected, they were in the “moderne” style of the 1930s.

The Julia Ideson building, which also contains the City’s largest installation of public murals completed under the post-Depression-era Works Progress Administration, served the citizens of Houston as their main library until 1976, when the new and larger Jesse H. Jones library building opened across the plaza. At that time, the Houston Metropolitan Research Center was established under the leadership of Harold M. Hyman, today the William P. Hobby Professor of History, Emeritus, at Rice University. The Julia Ideson library was altered to include six floors of storage through the center of the structure for archived materials.

As a Recorded Texas Historical Landmark, a City of Houston Protected Landmark, a Texas State Archaeological Landmark and a landmark listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Ideson’s distinctive architecture and decoration have been preserved. However, the building is in critical need of refurbishment and repair. In addition, the archival collection has outgrown the space available and also requires more sophisticated climate and humidity control, and appropriate storage facilities.

An independent 501c3 organization, the Julia Ideson Library Preservation Partners launched a capital campaign in October 2007. To date, the Board of Directors has raised over $31.6 million of its $32 million goal, including $15 million from the City of Houston.

JILPP commissioned Gensler as the project architect and TBG Partners as the landscape architect and, in partnership with the appropriate City and Houston Public Library officials, is helping to ensure the design and construction of the building is completed to the highest of standards in a financially responsible manner. The new archival wing and adjacent loggia and garden are now complete and opened to the public in April of 2010. Restoration of the 1926 building’s grand public spaces has begun with an expected re-opening in the summer of 2011.