Seattle Central Library

Liliane Wong

Description

Opened in 2004, the Seattle Central Library by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in joint venture with LMN Architects sets the standard for the library of the 21^st century. At a moment in history when digital technology had brought about the need to redefine the library as an institution, the design of the Seattle Central Library is a bold work that embraces information in all of its various forms, resulting in a civic monument that is profound and became seminal for the building type.

Bounded by office towers and the federal courthouse, the library occupies a full city block on a steeply sloping site in downtown Seattle. The asymmetrical, exterior volume composed of angular, faceted planes of gridded glass and steel encloses the eleven-story, 33,700 m² building. The irregular profile created by these abstract geometrical forms is the result of OMA’s novel approach to program as a means by which to reinvent the new library as a repository of information, “where all media – new and old – are presented under a regime of new equalities.” (“Concept Book”, p. 8) Presented in 1999 as part of the design process, the “Concept Book” illustrates OMA’s proposal in regard to the critical issues, common to many libraries adapting to the information age, resulting from the proliferation of information media.

OMA’s concept is premised on the duality of the library experience of the 21^st century as both real, through its physical structure, and virtual, through its internet site. Guided by the concept of the computing platform that includes, at a minimum, a computer’s architecture, operating system, and programmatic languages, OMA reorganizes the library program into five so-called “platforms”. Each of these platforms – parking, staff, assembly, books, and headquarters – is dedicated to its own purpose and occupies an autonomous volume designed and equipped for dedicated performance. Arranged vertically in overlapping fashion, these platforms are connected through four interstitial zones labeled as “trading floors” where the librarians and patrons “work, interact, and play” (“Concept Book”, p. 22). These zones constitute a “living room”, a so-called Mixing Chamber, and a reading room. The abstract volumes of the exterior reflect the dissimilar needs of the platforms and zones in size, circulation, structure, interior mechanical needs, and solar orientation.

The platform dedicated to books addresses the common problem of flexibility in accommodating collections, housed in discrete rooms, as they unpredictably expand and contract over time. The solution is found in the Book Spiral, a continuous ribbon of books arranged in the Dewey Decimal System. The Book Spiral contains 6,233 bookcases which, at opening, housed 780,000 volumes but can accommodate up to 1,450,000 volumes without the addition of any bookcases in the future.

Additional features include the Mixing Chamber, an area dedicated to librarian and patron interaction that maximizes both human and technological intelligence, and the state-of-the-art book handling system that checks books through a conveyor belt into the library’s circulation system using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Sustainable design elements included the recycling of 75 % of demolition and construction waste and resulted in the project’s award of a Silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

OMA/LMN Architects, “Concept Book”, Seattle Public Library proposal, December 1999, http://www.spl.org/prebuilt/cen_conceptbook