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Topanga Library

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Project Description

Located on Topanga Canyon Boulevard between the Pine Tree Circle Shopping Center and the Verizon building, the new 11,048 sq. ft. Topanga Library will have a one-story elevated building above surface parking. The library will offer a central reading room; a children’s area with a storytelling space; meeting and study rooms; a homework center; up-to-date computer equipment; and a store for the Friends of the Topanga Library. Norman Grochowski will undertake the largest commission for the library with three 9’ painted steel flowers whose petals, upon closer inspection, are open books. Located on an outdoor terrace, the flowers will be accompanied by steel vines which wind up through a trellis, and dragonflies hovering over the flowers. He will also create light sconces featuring creatures of the canyon. Matt and Paul Doolin are creating a large circular handmade tile mural depicting the flora and fauna of the canyon. Megan Rice is creating two resin-coated colorfully painted sculptures for the children’s area. Jim Sullivan is creating a mosiac entry “rug” for the Library’s main entrance from a variety of colorful handmade shaped and broken tiles.

See Topanga Art Tile and Design (Matt and Paul Doolin), George W. Carver Park Pool

About the Artist

Norman Grochowski is a sculptor and general contractor who has undertaken numerous private commissions. His work has been featured at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Laguna Art Museum, as well as in Sunset Magazine, Architectural Digest and the LA Weekly. Grochowski lived in Topanga Canyon for many years, and now resides in Crescent City, California.

Brothers Matt and Paul Doolin, who grew up in Topanga Canyon, are carrying on a family tile business in Topanga.  Matt Doolin graduated from UCLA, and Paul, from UC Santa Cruz, both with degrees in art. Topanga Art Tile and Design, in operation since 1980, distributes its tiles around the world. 

Megan Rice has lived in Topanga since she was five, and recalls “barefoot beatniks, penniless painters and the furious optimism of the early sixties.” Megan holds a BA from Mills College, and her work has been included in many group exhibitions throughout California. 

James Sullivan is co-founder and owner of Malibu Ceramicworks, a Topanga tile company which replicates the cuerda seca and cuenca tiles originally produced in the 1920’s. He resides in Topanga Canyon.