The designers of the new downtown Renton library got an earful Tuesday night about the look, feel and location of the library as they start the design process.

No formal ideas have been crafted yet by the design team, but the designers had easels covered with ideas and designs to spur this initial public discussion.

“I want a beautiful (library), a jewel like the Mercer Island Library or the North Bend Library. Those are beautiful buildings,” said Helen Stanwell of Renton.

More than 100 people attended the open house at the Renton Pavilion Event Center, where King County Library System staff, City of Renton officials and the design team from the architectural firm, Miller Hull Partnership, answered their questions and wrote down their ideas.

Their sentiments ranged from wanting to leave the library where it is, over the Cedar River, to making the new location more like European cities with the new library integrated into a more active downtown.

Concerned Renton residents, City Council candidates and even protesters were drawn to the meeting.

KCLS Director Bill Ptacek opened the meeting with general comments about KCLS’s role in developing new libraries in Renton and surrounding areas. He was quickly peppered with questions about the site location chosen for the new downtown library.

“We’re not going to get into all that,” he said, shutting down the opportunity for a group discussion.

Instead, Ptacek directed attendees to stations where their could have their questions answered individually.

Protesting at the meeting were Beatrice Clark and Robert McCurry, of Renton, who held signs calling out KCLS for racial profiling and racism in their libraries.

“It happened to me personally,” said Clark. “It effects me and black people in general what has happened.”

Clark declined to give further details, saying she was just at the meeting to get the attention of KCLS. She has been informing other people in the community about what happened to her and said she is going to contact the King County Office of Civil Rights.

Ptacek did not acknowledge the protesters when asked how the evening was going. Commenting on the number of responses given at the different informational stations, he said he thought the evening was going well.

“Of course, the issue of the site, you know, is a big issue for some people,” Ptacek said. “We weren’t going to ignore it, but really that’s a decision that’s been made. So we wanted to focus on what’s this new library going to be like. How can we get input from the community so that we can start the design process and get going on this project?”

The crowd congregated around the different design stations, waiting turns turn to talk to someone.

Renee Stern of the Highlands came to the meeting because she is interested in the future of Renton’s libraries. She uses the Highlands library, which is also scheduled to be rebuilt, and the downtown branch often.

“So, I want to see it through and try and get my views heard because I don’t feel that they’ve been heard to date,” Stern said.

She got into a disagreement with City Council member King Parker while waiting for the meeting to start as they both sat at one of the tables. Stern didn’t think it was a smart use of taxpayer money to move the library a few blocks away into a smaller building.

Parker explained what he described as the tearful decision to move to the Big 5 location, given the cost of the upgrades required at the present location.

They both agreed to disagree.

Helen Stanwell came to the meeting because she said she didn’t want an ugly building for the new library. She has noticed what she calls a demarcation between North King County and South King County facilities in the amenities that they have for patrons.

Stanwell wants more space at computer stations, more curves in the design and updated technology to accommodate activities like film series.

“I think it’s really important to have a building that people are proud of and if it’s beautiful, they’ll want to take care of it,” she said.

Stanwell wished the downtown library could be rebuilt in its present location, but brought a list of concerns and ideas for the new location she adamantly relayed to architect David Miller, one of the founding partners of the architecture firm, while he was standing at the Exterior Expressions station.

“People aren’t holding back, that’s for sure,” Miller said later.

He received 30 to 40 comments at this station alone. A lot of people were saying they want a Northwest-style building and a contemporary building and were looking to the future, he said.

There was also talk of adding multiple floors, which is something he said they would have to think about long and hard because of the added costs, staff and other details that would entail.

As for the contention in the air, Miller said, “We’ve been doing public architecture for over 30 years and there’s always lots of opinions.”

The process becomes a dynamic one, he said, with outlets like social media for people to continually speak out about a project.

“You have to listen well, you have to edit the comments so that you in the end get something that works for the greater population,” Miller said.

All the comments and ideas expressed at the meeting Tuesday night were to be shared among the architects, KCLS and city staff on the project team to see what the public is interested in doing, Alex Pietsch said. He is the Community and Economic Development administrator for the City of Renton.

Pietsch was at a station explaining how the library would fit into the vision of downtown. He thought of the library as taking on a smaller scale, eclectic, more urban fabric and more “gritty” than the shiny and glitzy Landing shopping center.

After the design process, construction is scheduled to start late summer 2012 and the library will open late 2013.