Details
Keywords Change this
Project timeline
1999 – May 2004
Type
Library
Location Change this
WA 98104 Seattle, Washington
USA
Current state
Original
Architect Change this
Team
Meghan Corwin, Mark von Hof-Zogrotzki, Bjarke Ingels, Carol Patterson, Natasha Sandmeier (project architects);
Keely Colcleugh, Rachel Doherty, Sarah Gibson, Laura Gilmore, Anna Little, John McMorrough, Kate Orff, Beat Schenk, Saskia Simon, Anna Sutor, Victoria Willocks, Dan Wood with Florence Clausel, Thomas Dubuisson, Chris van Duijn, Erez Ella, Achim Gergen, Eveline Jürgens, Antti Lassila, Hannes Peer, João Costa Ribeiro, Kristina Skoogh, Sybille Waeltli, Leonard Weil, Ali Arvanaghi (team)
Client Change this
The Seattle Public Library
www.spl.lib.wa.us
Cost Change this
€112 million
Gross floor area Change this
38,300m²
Partners Change this
Structural engineersArup
www.arup.com/
Seattle Public Library Change this
Description Change this
In 1998, voters in Seattle agreed to a $200 million modernization of the Seattle Public Library system named 'Libraries for All'. As part of this initiative Rem Koolhaas/OMA in collaboration with the Seattle firm LMN Architects was commissioned in 1999 to build a new library building in downtown Seattle. Joshua Ramus was the partner in charge. The new library opened on May 2004 and it soon became one of the seminal buildings of the early 2000s.
The building epitomizes Rem Koolhaas’s interest in the architectural program: the organization of space according to use and function. The library is arranged across five platforms which are derived from a functional diagram of the surface needs for the different library tasks. Together they dictate the building’s distinctive shape. Oma wrtites: “By modifying the superposition of floors in the typical American high-rise, a building emerges that is at the same time sensitive (the slopes will admit unusual quantities of daylight where desirable), contextual (each side can react differently to specific urban conditions) and iconic. Its angular facets form a plausible bracketing of Seattle's new modernity.”The core platform is the book spiral which arranges and displays the library’s entire book collection in a continuous ribbon running from 000 to 999 to allow for the expansion of certain sections without compromising library space.
The spaces between the platforms function as “trading floors” where librarians can inform and stimulate the patrons. They are designed to create spaces for work, interaction and play. In OMA’s library configuration the reference desk is called Mixing Chamber. It is untypically placed in the center of the building and functions as the central node to the library’s information and people flow.
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