Giant Ginkgo

Seattle's new library opened a few weeks ago to much fanfair- and rightly so. When I first saw pictures of the new building online, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but I figured I would either love it or hate it after seeing it in person. After getting an opportunity to wander around inside, I've definitely fallen into the loving it camp.

Unfortunately I didn't spend as much time as I wanted to in the building, but I did get a chance to visit all ten stories of it. But I definitely have to say that it is the most impressive new library I've ever seen. It easily puts to shame the current libraries in San Francisco, Vancouver and Chicago.

It does have a few flaws, though. The major one is the architect seemed to overlook the saying "What goes up, must come down." There is a wonderful, easy to find series of escalators that will carry the patrons and tourists up to the top floor. Once deposited onto the top floor, there are no down escalators to be found. Just some stairs (which are hard to navigate to the ground, ten stories below) and a bank of elevators. With the current crowds, there ends up being a large number of people waiting to return to the lower levels.

The elevators are pretty cool, though. Each floor has an LED display that shows the current books housed on it via the Dewey Decimal System. There are also tons of computers available for members, complete with polarizing filters over the screens so that people can't look over the users shoulders easily.

The sound absorbing tiles look like an upside down field of pillows. I couldn't help but wonder about the longevity of them, and some of the other elements in the library. The most likely elements to not age gracefully (or suffer from harm from visitors) are the pretty spiffy chairs and benches that are spread around the reading areas. They are made out of some sort of soft foam, that molds itsel to the body of the sitter. I just have a hard time believing that it won't crack, or be easily slicable with sharp objects.

The outside of the library is very odd, but from the inside the angles are really cool, giving everything a sense of motion without being overpowering at the same time. The large open spaces really help due to the scale of the negative space; the muted color palate of the walls and diamond grids keep things under control - and highlight the brightly marked spaces.