Cerritos highlight
Strong community identity
The Cerritos Library, which opened in 2002 as the first titanium-clad public building in North America, serves as the city's cultural and civic center.
The Cerritos Library sits at the heart of the city's Civic Center complex, having originated with a structure dedicated in 1973 and expanded into its current form by 2002. The striking $40 million building, designed by architect Charles Walton Associates and covering 82,500 square feet, is covered in a golden titanium exterior that shifts color with the sun and weather, making it the first publicly funded building in the United States to use titanium cladding on such a scale.
The library earned national recognition immediately upon completion, winning Reader's Digest magazine's award for Best Public Library in 2004 and Best of L.A. honors from Los Angeles Magazine in 2003. Inside, the building houses specialized spaces designed as what the city calls an "Experience Library," featuring a 15,000-gallon saltwater aquarium and an authentic 40-foot-long Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil replica alongside more conventional library functions. The facility has become a destination for school groups, college students, and families across Los Angeles County.
A community landmark this important anchors the kind of stable, long-term thinking that families rely on. When a place where your neighbors gather and your children learn has been cared for through decades, it signals a city that invests in its households' future. That same care in planning—choosing coverage that will see a family through the years when they need it most—is what term life insurance provides.