R. D. Gibbs & Co. won the county contract for the stained glass artwork to be placed in the new La Crescenta Library. Even though it is still under construction, the county hopes to open the library by the end of the year.

If you've driven past the project, you've seen the artist's concept drawing, but next time you go by, stop and take a closer look.

While the design is not what the glass will eventually look like (that is a closely held secret), you can see how and where it will be placed.

Since the entry faces southwest, the glass will filter full sunlight into the library's entrance in glorious multi-colored brilliance.

Tim Gibbs co-directs the 29-year-old, family-owned art glass company with his father, Douglas Gibbs, a true Old World artisan who earned his apprenticeship restoring ancient glass in England's Canterbury Cathedral after WW II. (A fascinating story for a future posting.)

The company has done new work and restorations in churches throughout the country and locally at Loyola Marymount College, St. James the Less Catholic Church and the Church of the Lighted Windows in La Crescenta. Its leaded glass is also featured in the Agoura Hills Library.

"We do everything from cathedral windows to kitchen cabinet inserts for the home owner," said the soft-spoken Tim Gibbs.

In the shop, son and grandson, Jason Gibbs, worked steadily on a beautiful faceted glass window laid out on a workbench, following the line drawing - called the cartoon - underneath.

At another table, "Grandpa" Gibbs drew Latin letters with a steady hand on sections of pale yellow stained glass. Later, the glass would be fired in a kiln, where the "paint" becomes a permanent part of the glass.

Gibbs was invited to bid on the library job as part of the county's Civic Art Policy, which stipulates that 1 percent of the construction cost in public buildings is allocated for art.

According to Tim, their stained glass design "will suggest the flavor of the community as well as the architectural design of the building."

(Another Crescenta Valley artist, Evan le Grand Wilson, was commissioned to do tromp d'oeil painting inside the library.)

For the library project, Gibbs began with the construction plans and designed the secular, abstract, multi-colored windows that will eventually surround the main entrance doors to the library.

When the design was approved, full sized "cartoons" were drawn. Now, carefully chosen types and colors of glass are being cut and assembled within lead cames atop those drawings.

After the cames are soldered, a grout-like compound will beworked into the crevasses to seal the windows and darken the lead.

The windows will then be re-enforced, if necessary, with thin bars, and finally transported to the site to be installed.

The library will be a grand addition to La Crescenta, not only for its wealth of information, entertainment and education ... but for its artistic beauty.

R. D. Gibbs & Co. is located at 3523 Ocean View Blvd, in Glendale.

For more information, 818-249-1509

The new La Crescenta Library is located on the northeast corner of Foothill Boulevard and La Crescenta Avenue.