The fabulous Koohaas hat by one of my favorite designers, Jared Flood, is a tribute to Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’s design for the Seattle Central Library.
Seattle’s Central Library was completed in 2004 and designed by Koolhaas of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. The building’s bold, dramatic, cantilevered form is, according to the catalogue, “wrapped in a mesh skin of diamond-shaped panes of glass (much like a fishnet stocking) set into a matching steel grid that operates as both a transparent curtain wall and part of the structural systems. As Herbert Muschamp described, ‘the interior's overhanging platforms have been draped with a metal and glass building skin, as if it were a piece of cloth. Hence the exterior folds.’ ”
Although the library is an unusual shape from the outside, the architects' philosophy was to let the building's required functions dictate what it should look like, rather than imposing a structure and making the functions conform to that.
For example, a major section of the building is the “book spiral,” designed to display the library's nonfiction collection without breaking up the Dewey decimal classification system onto different floors or sections. The collection spirals up through four stories on a continuous series of shelves. This allows patrons to peruse the entire collection without using stairs or traveling to a different part of the building.
Other internal features include: the Microsoft Auditorium on the ground floor, the "Living Room" on the third floor (designed as a space for patrons to read), the Charles Simonyi Mixing Chamber (a version of a reference desk that provides interdisciplinary staff help for patrons with questions answered or doing research), and the Betty Jane Narver Reading Room on level 10 (with views of Elliott Bay).
Like any public building, there are lovers of the design and critics. I’d love to hear comments from those of you who have visited the Seattle Central Library. And I plan to add Koolhaas to my queue.
