SEATTLE – A city that loves a good book as much as a good cup of coffee is getting a new place to curl up and read.
Within its jutting angles and sharp corners, Seattle’s new downtown Central Library, which opens Sunday, is filled with bold designs and bright colors to greet people in search of books and learning.
“It’s a very seductive kind of place, with lots of surprises and nuances,” said Jodee Fenton, one of the building’s more than 100 librarians. “It’s always giving you something back.”
From top to bottom, the $165 million glass-and-metal library is as much about art as it is function.
The 11-story building’s sides thrust out at angles that seem suspended in air, giving visitors a feeling of hovering above downtown. Its exterior walls and roof are made almost entirely of glass on a metal honeycomb, with views of city streets and surrounding buildings and glimpses of Puget Sound and Mount Rainier.
“I hope that it truly fills the needs and aspirations of the city,” said architect Joshua Ramus, who designed the library with famed Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.
The building replaces a 1960s-era structure that, while much used, had become dated and too small for its collections. The new structure, on the site where Seattle’s first permanent public library was built in 1906, will have space for a half-million more books than its predecessor.
Each level has its own function, including “The Living Room,” featuring long couches and a coffee bar; “The Reading Room,” a more traditional setting; and the “Teen Center.” Level 5 is the “Mixing Chamber,” with a reference center that includes 132 public computers, wireless hot spots for people to research on their own laptops, and a conference room.
Children will have a 15,000-square-foot area for their books, six times larger than in the old library. The building also has a 275-seat auditorium.
Staff throughout the library are equipped with wireless communication devices to summon librarians.
“It’s a way not to be tied to the desk,” said Marilyn Sheck, director of information technology. “Books are still our heart, but technology is much more prominent.”
The heart of the library is the “Books Spiral,” which circles gently from the sixth to the ninth floor. The long sloping ramp holds the bulk of the book collection, with Dewey decimal system numbers on the floor at the end of each row of books to speed navigation.
The stacks are made of steel shelving and frosted plastic that gives the space an open feeling and allows light from the honeycomb windows to penetrate even the lowest shelf.
The new 362,987-square-foot building is equipped with 400 computers and has the capacity for 1.4 million books. The old 206,000-square-foot library had 75 computers and room for 900,000 books.
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