Residents will have an opportunity to see images of the final design of Seattle's new Central Library at a public open house scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 5 at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., third floor auditorium. A session for members of the disabled community on access in the new building will follow from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Everyone is welcome.
Seattle voters overwhelmingly approved a $196.4 million library bond measure in November 1998, which included funds for a new central library at the existing location.
The open house will feature opening remarks by City Librarian Deborah L. Jacobs, and half-hour presentations on the design by LMN architect Bob Zimmer and capital program director Alexandra Harris at 11 a.m. and again at 1 p.m. There will be an opportunity to ask questions after the presentations.
On display will be an updated model of the building, interior features of the building, as well as tables with proposed interior colors and wall and floor materials.
The Library expects to have computer-generated video of the building design to help the public understand the major public spaces.
A mock-up of the library's "curtainwall" system will be on display outside the Central Library on the third floor terrace. The curtainwall is the exterior steel and glass system that encloses the building. There also will be a mock-up of the proposed book shelving system.
Jacobs, Harris and a number of Library staff will be available to talk with residents about the collections and services planned on each floor of the 10-story structure, including the unique "book spiral." The gently sloping book spiral will wind through four floors of book stacks. The innovative design means the Library can increase its non-fiction collection without disrupting the Dewey Decimal system-based order of the collection. The book spiral will give readers unprecedented access to the Library's non-fiction collection.
Other features of the building include a large and imaginative children's area, special collections and services for those learning English as a second language, an area for teens, greatly enhanced technology, a 275-seat auditorium and public parking.
In keeping with the Library's functional building program, a high concentration of Library staff will be located on one floor to provide assistance with reference, technology and research.
The new central library is being designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas with the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), in a joint venture with locally based LMN Architects. Koolhaas was awarded the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 2000.
The Central Library will operate in a temporary facility at 800 Pike St., part of the expanded Washington State Convention and Trade Center, until the new building opens in late 2003. Demolition of the present library and construction of the new building should get under way this summer. The current Central Library is tentatively scheduled to shut down at 6 p.m. Friday, June 8. No downtown library service will be available until the temporary facility opens at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 7.
For more information, about the open house, or temporary central library call 206-386-4636, or visit www.spl.org.
(For more information, call Andra Addison, communications director, at 206-386-4103, or andra.addison@spl.org.)
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Content modified: 4 April 2001
12/30/2005
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