July 29, 1904: The Public Library on Copley Square was designed by architect Charles Follen McKim of the firm McKim, Mead and White. It cost $2.5 million to build, opened its doors for public viewing on Feb. 1, 1895, and began circulating books on March 11, 1895.

A model of the Boston Public Library’s first addition proposal from Philip Johnson.

Cars and pedestrians pass by a new section of the Boston Public Library at the corner of Exeter and Boylston streets on Feb. 18, 1971.

The new section of the Boston Public Library as seen from the corner of Exeter and Boylston streets, on May 11, 1972.

Part of the new addition to the Boston Public Library, Nov. 28, 1972.

A rendering of planned improvements to the Boston Public Library’s Johnson Building near Copley Square.

Temporary Boylston Street entrance to the Boston Public Library as renovation continues on Jan. 26.

Workers demolish a wall inside the Boston Public Library on Feb. 16.

The Children’s Library at the Boston Public Library in Boston on Jan. 26, 2016. The area was opened in February 2015 as part of an ongoing restoration project.

Max Tovar, 4, listened as his mother, Connie Tovar, read in the Children’s Library at the Boston Public Library in January.

Renovation work continued in an area of the library that will become retail space.

The temporary Boylston Street entrance to the Boston Public Library.

Renovation work continued in the fiction section of the Boston Public Library.