Before I share my world with you I would like to recognize all the wonderful men and women who have died to protect us and our country. My hope for the future is that we make every effort to find other ways to promote peace and unity -- not just in our country but in the world. The loss of so many young lives was, is and will be a sad testament to all of our worlds.
Once again it's time for you to show Your World! That's My World is hosted by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise. So click here and join us for the fun and share your world with us.
Seattle is a fascinating city with a fascinating history. For the next few "That's My World" entries I'm going to share some of the interesting, beautiful and intriguing aspects. Today I'm going to share one of my favorite places -- the Seattle Public Library. Hope you enjoy!
Rem Koolhaas OMA
Seattle Public Library
Seattle, Washington
The new Seattle Public Library houses the library's main collection of books, government publications, periodicals, audio visual materials and the technology to access and distribute information from the physical collection online.
The building is divided into eight horizontal layers, each varying in size to fit its function. A structural steel and glass skin unifies the multifaceted form and defines the public spaces in-between.
Situated on a sloping site between 4th and 5th street the new library will have entrances on both street levels.
The entrance level on 4th Street, one of Seattle's main thoroughfares, houses the Children's Library and foreign-language resources.
Rows of escalators lead to the 5th Street "Living Room" lobby located under a 50-foot-high sloping glass wall. The lobby can also be reached directly from a covered walkway than runs the length of the 5th Avenue facade.
The carpeted "Living Room" contains the fiction stacks while non-fiction are located on the "Dewey Ramp"; a four-story ramp that allows people to browse through books in a continuos sequence.
The Reading room, on the top floor, has views of Puget Sound and the surrounding mountains.
Koolhaas sees the new library as a custodian of the book, a showcase for new information, a place for thought, discussion and reflection - a dynamic presence.
The fact that the contents of a whole library can be stored on a single chip, or the fact that a single library can now store the digital content of all libraries, together represent potential rethinking: new forms of storage enable the space dedicated to real books to be contained; new forms of reading enhance the aura of the real book.
Our first operation has been the "combining" and consolidation of the apparently ungovernable proliferation of programs and media. By combining like with like, we have identified five platforms, each a programmatic cluster that is architecturally defined and equipped for maximum, dedicated performance. Because each platform is designed for a unique purpose, they are different in size, density, opacity.
The in-between spaces are like trading floors where librarians inform and stimulate, where the interface between the different platforms is organized - spaces for work, interaction, and play. (And reading).
29 comments:
The library is fantastic, Sylvia. What a pleasure it will be to go to a place like that!
But I absolutely love the way you began your post and I share you wish.
Library schools always show pictures of this wonderful library to their students as an example of all the things a library can be. I remember the look on older librarians faces, though, when Seattle first built this wonderful place. I could read just what they were thinking--What!! Coffee? books? in the same place?
Lovely description of the Library! Great shots too.
beautiful library-never been there in all my trips to seattle.
A fantastically beautiful building! Wait until I show this to my daughter, Rita, who works in our public library. She will be so jealous!
Wow, Sylvia, that's a fantastic building! Great!
That sure is an unusual looking building. I love libraries and hope they are not lost forever as we change into this cyberworld. Not that I don't like that too.
I sure hope you'll take us to Pike's Market or Ballard Locks on a busy day.
Thanks for sharing Sylvia.
Hi Silvia thank you so much for this great post.The new library is a wonderful contemporary building. A hurray for libraries and the computer age.
Wow! That is incredible! It's so much nicer than the one we have in Chicago. I wish we'd gone to see it.
Great building. It's been a while since i've been to Seattle I don't think this library was around then.
I love the first picture and message too.
What an incredible library, great pics. And I totally agree with your first statement, in my opinion, Memorial Day (and Remembrance Day here in Canada) are one of the most important holidays.
Have a great week
Guy
Regina In Pictures
Beautiful Library`s building.
Great your World.
Luiz Ramos
Wow - what an awesome library! I'll have to check it out when I'm up in your neck of the woods this summer! It's really spectacular.
That's an amazing library. Anything that promotes reading is good for society and good for our country as a whole. As a nod to Memorial Day, I think we might have less wars if knowledge was more widespread than weaponry.
What a beautiful building! My town's library is tiny, tiny. Thank goodness for inter-library loans!
Wow, that's an amazing library. The architecture is so interesting. This was a great post. I enjoyed the text and photographs so much.
Beautiful building...Seattle is the next city I really want to visit in The States...thanks for the inspiration!!
The architecture of the libray is spectacular. It almost looks like a stack of books.
Your Memorial Day tribute is wonderful too!
I so agree with what you said in doing every effort to find other ways to promote peace and unity worldwide.
I just love the architecture of the public library and the interiors, I could spend hours there. They look so restful and quite well-lighted, really nice.
Hello, how are you? What a structure, fantastic, thanks for sharing :) MonikaROse
oh and by the way I have a new creation in my shop , stop by cya
I read about the Seattle library when they were building it and it sounded so wonderful, your pictures show it well. We are flying to Seattle this week but connecting to a flight to Anchorage, on the way back we’ll have a 6 hours layover at the airport, but I believe it is too far to try to get into town - maybe another time. I have been to Seattle twice, but that was before they built the library unfortunately.
Wow. What an amazing piece of architecture and so modern. Any of the libraries I've been to are very, very old.
wow very impressive!
Great post, beautiful photos and fabulous building. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
Smiles
Hi Sylvia! This is a beautiful kind of arcitecture! Very interesting to see the various levels. Koolhaas is a very Dutch name!
I do hope with you that there will be a time without war, for as long as I live there has been war, and we are always involved.
What and interest libray you have there!!
I like the geometric angles of the place..
That third photo is really cool .. looks like the stacks and people are sitting in a big pond covered in rushes and lily pads..
Great shots !!
Oh, I want a Dewey Ramp!! I loved these shots, Sylvia; I miss being a library lady sometimes. Thanks for a great My World post!
What a glorious library! Nashville has a good one, too. When I go to Seattle, I'll be sure to tour the library.
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