National Library of Latvia Companies" signed the contract on the construction of the new "National Library of Latvia". On 18 May 2014, the main facility of the Library at Krišjāņa Barona iela was closed for the move. In 2008, construction started according to the design of the Latvian-American architect Gunnar Birkerts who has been tasked with the project already in 1989. The new building has 13 floors and is 68 m high. Construction costs were given as 193 million euros. 480 people work there. As part of Riga's programme for its title as European Capital of Culture, selected holdings were symbolically carried from the
Capital punishment in Latvia capital punishment for wartime murder, until it abolished it in 2012. Latvia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 2013. Capital punishment in Latvia Capital punishment in Latvia was abolished for ordinary crimes in 1999 and for crimes committed during wartime in 2012. Latvia is party to several international instruments which ban the capital punishment. Latvia regained independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. Subsequently, the death penalty in civilian cases was reserved for murder and the only method of execution, as during Soviet times, was shooting with