by Craig Kaminer / Photos and renderings courtesy of St. Louis County Library

For most of last year, Bob Clark, the founder and executive chairman of the Clayco, Inc. family of companies, has lived and worked in Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as the United States Commissioner General at Expo Dubai. While living in Dubai and serving as the State Department’s U.S. Ambassador to the Expo, Clark was “blown away” after visiting the House of Wisdom – a next-generation library – located in a city just north of Dubai called Sharjah. Described as a reimagining of libraries for the 21st century, it is a model for future libraries that blends traditional and digital sources of knowledge. It is a home for ideas to be created and exchanged between people and cultures, a place for the young and old, the amateur and professional, the inspired and inspiring – where education and entertainment are not exclusive to each other.

“After experiencing the House of Wisdom,” Clark said, “I started thinking it would be great for our family to partner with our hometown St. Louis County Library. So, I called Kristen Sorth, the Director of the St. Louis County Library System, to discuss how we could make something great happen here.”

One of the Clayco companies, Lamar Johnson Collaborative, designed the new library branch which will replace the old headquarters building at 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd. Says Clark, “I have been in the library headquarters building across from Frontenac Plaza with all of my kids at one time or another. My company has been really impressed with the leadership at the St. Louis County Library. We’ve been doing a lot of design work and a lot of thoughtful mission-related thinking with Kristen and some of the other folks about the purpose of libraries, what are libraries going to be like in the future, and that sort of thing.”

“I’ve been impressed with the way they operate. I really believe libraries are great centers for communities, for schools, for local people, for people from far away to learn together. Libraries of the future aren’t like they were 40 years ago, but they still are a thoughtprovoking place to bring ideas together.”

On May 24, Bob Clark and his family announced a gift of $6 million, the largest in the St. Louis County Library’s history….

Find out all the details on this historic donation in our July/ August issue: https://issuu.com/sophisticatedliving/docs/slsl_j-a_2022