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August 12, 2004
Seattle's Central Library
The Central Branch of the Seattle Public Library is where I've been writing from while I've been in Seattle. It's a brand new building which just opened in late May and is absolutely stunning. I've been interested in achitecture for some time due to an excellent drafting teacher in high school and a full year course on architectural history in college and have been inside noted cathedrals, homes and office buildings so I made a point to check out this library. I even stayed in a hotel just a few blocks away because of the free internet access that the library provides.
There's been a lot of praise for this building and some criticism, like there are with all buildings so I'm going to add my unprofessional, and somewhat educated opinion to all the others. Simply put, I think this building is brilliant. It is visually intriguing, technologically advanced, and a pleasure to spend time in.
The exterior is sheathed in glass with a criss-crossing steel frame, not unlike I.M. Pei's controversial pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. Each floor is offset, giving the building the appearance of being off-kilter but balanced at the same time.
Inside, the library has a total of eleven levels. Each is different. Many of the levels are public spaces such as reading rooms, research areas, study areas or computer spaces. Note that I'm refraining from using the word "room" because there are very few actual rooms in the building. Many of the spaces are only bound by a floor and ceiling. Some parts, such as the "Living Room", are open on all sides and sunlight streams in through acres of glass wall.
In terms of function, lower levels are mostly dedicated to public spaces and computer areas while books are in the unique "book spiral" of the upper floors. The spiral is exactly what it sounds like - a continous ramp of bookshelves. This makes it possible to walk from level nine down to level six without using the stairs. Books flow down the gradually sloping spiral in order of the Dewey Decimal System, with rubber floor mats denoting the catalog number of each shelf.
There is a lot of art in the building. The floor of the foreign language area is a woodcarving of sentences from books in 11 languages while a wall next to one of the escalators is knocked out and shows faces projected onto pipes and other surfaces.
Technology highlights include 400 computers, wireless internet access throughout the building and RFID chips implanted in each book which allow the custom built book handling system to automatically sort every book for easy re-shelving.
The biggest triumph for this building however, is that in light of all the brilliant technology and design features mentioned above, the building still feels like a library. It's quiet and peaceful, the staff is helpful and information is easy to find - all things that a library should be. The building takes form to new levels while enhancing function, like all well designed buildings do.
View a slideshow of images at the library's website.
Sources: floor by floor, book handling, stats, art
Posted on August 12, 2004 at 1:52 PM