Lou Rosenfeld, on a visit to my fair city, commented on the new downtown Seattle Public Library. Fellow Seattle-ite Oren Sreebny posted on the library, too. So, I guess I'll chime in with my two cents.
The new library is a must see for anyone interested in architecture or libraries. It qualifies as perhaps the most interesting civic space in Seattle. And it's always fun to have a building done by a superstar architect like Rem Koolhaas (check out his project proposal).
It's amazing to see the amount of excitement and hoopla surrounding the opening of a library. Think about that for a second. It's a library. And about 30,000 lined up to get inside on opening day (I was one of them!). And, I heard there were lines the next day, too. Wow! (Check out the press coverage.)
There are a couple of interesting findability innovations:
a) They put call numbers on the floor, in big (removable) rubber mats. Nice.
b) The stacks are in one long spiral, meaning that the books aren't broken up by floor or room divisions.
If you're near Seattle, come on down and check it out. And if you ever visit, put it on your sight-seeing list.
Posted by Karl
May 27, 2004 08:12 PM