One year after breaking ground, the $520-million rebuild of the Long Beach Civic Center is rapidly taking shape.

The signature component of the project - a new City Hall and headquarters for the Port of Long Beach - are now midway through vertical construction at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue.  The dual 11-story buildings are both designed by architecture firm SOM.

At Pacific Avenue on the opposite side of the Civic Center, the steel frame of the new Long Beach Main Library began rising one month ago.  The 93,000-square-foot facility will be located north of a restored Lincoln Park.

A later phase of the Civic Center project, which is being developed by Plenary-Edgemore Civic Partners, could include up to 1,000 residential units and a hotel, with buildings of up to 36 stories in height.  These commercial developments would join a pair of multifamily projects already under construction just north of the government center.