Seattle's new central library, currently in design development, was recognized at the American Institute of Architecture (AIA) Seattle 2000 Honor Awards for Washington Architecture on Nov. 13.
The 355,000-square-foot library, scheduled to open in 2003, is being designed by the Office for Metropolitan (OMA) from the Netherlands in a joint venture with Seattle-based LMN Architects. The building design received an Award of Merit for a project not yet built. The 11-story library will be constructed on the existing site at 1000 Fourth Ave. A national panel of architects selected the OMA/LMN central library design for the award.
The innovative architecture was described as "defining and reinventing the library as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated to the book, but as an information store, where all media – new and old – are presented under a regime of new equalities."
Earlier this year, Rem Koolhaas, principal for OMA, received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the Nobel prize for architecture. He also was included in Architectural Digest's international guide to the top 100 architects and interior designers, published in January 2000.
For more information or to see images of the new central library, visit the Library's Web site at www.spl.org and select "Libraries for All." The central library is part of the Seattle Public Library's extensive Libraries for All building program. Voters approved a $196.4 million bond measure in 1998 to rebuild the library system. Five new branch libraries and expansions and improvements to 22 existing neighborhood libraries are included in the program.
(For more information, call Andra Addison, communications director, at 206-386-4103, or andra.addison@spl.org.)
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Content modified: 15 November 2000
12/30/2005
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