The paint colors on the new Albany Public Library are depressing. Whether anything can be done about it now without unreasonable expense is the question.

Somebody — the council, the library board, somebody — should have laughed out loud when the architects told them months ago that this green and this brown symbolized the valley’s agriculture and growth. Colors as ugly as these are not found in nature, certainly not in the grass-seed and wheat fields or orchards around here.

The donor who has generously given millions of dollars to make this library possible was horrified by the paint scheme when it was first applied. It would be bad manners, if nothing else, to ask her to pay for repainting it.

Remember the “Blue Whale” building at Queen and Geary? It wasn’t blue very long. So the best way out might be to leave the library paint alone for now, post a bronze plaque near the entrance saying “Paint colors chosen by” (followed by names), and hope that wind and weather will make necessary the repainting of this structure with more attractive colors within a few years. (hh)