February 4, 2004

Central Library design is an open book

Photo by Sam Bennett The Fifth Avenue entrance is on the third level of the library. To the right, along the south wall, is the "living room," which will have a gift shop, coffee cart and a serpentine red sofa that seats 20 people.

The new Central Library raises a lot of questions.

The one City Librarian Deborah Jacobs hears most often is: how are they going to wash the windows? The answer is easy: window washers with a bosun's chair harness and squeegee.

Explaining why the library's Level 1 columns are slanted or how the unique "books spiral" works is more complicated. But the organizing ideas behind these designs are making more sense, as the $165 million library comes together for its May 23 opening.

Designed by the Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture and Seattle's LMN Architects, the Central Library offers what Jacobs promises will be an easily navigable set of sloping floors for its nonfiction collection, as well as dramatic views of the city and Elliott Bay.

The design, Jacobs said, "will capture view corridors, which is a gift to the city."

Fiction will be located on Level 3, at the Fifth Avenue entrance. The other 75 percent of the book collection will be housed on the 3-1/2 floor midsection of the library.

The book spiral is actually a set of long ramps -- each rising six feet as it extends the length of the library. With strip florescent lights and low ceilings, the spiral areas will not expose books to sunlight, answering another common question about the glass-covered library, Jacobs said.

Visitors entering Level 1 on the Fourth Avenue side will find the 15,000-square-foot Children's Department, with its sloping exposed concrete columns. The columns are angled to meet columns used in the 143-stall parking garage below, allowing the most advantageous configuration for the parking area.

The south side of Level 1 will have the Literacy, English as a Second Language and World Languages departments, as well as a 275-seat auditorium.

Level 2 is a staff floor, not open to the public.

Those entering at Level 3 on Fifth Avenue walk into the "living room" -- the base of the building's dramatic atrium. The expansive south-side curtain wall stretches from Fifth to Fourth avenues and supports lateral loads -- as does the rest of the diamond grid skin. Vertical columns support gravity loads.

Level 4 is the Meeting Floor, with a capacity for 200 people. Level 5 is the Mixing Chamber, or the reference desk area. Staffers in the Mixing Chamber can talk with librarians in the books spiral using wireless devices.

Jacobs toured Europe before design began on the library, and said she realized the need for balconies in the library, where visitors could watch others and scan the floors they want to visit next. The Meeting Floor offers that chance, with views down toward the living room or skyward through the atrium.

But the best, 360-degree views are reserved for the Level 10 Reading Room. Views of the bay, the W Hotel and Two Union Square give Level 10 the feel of a mid-rise loft.

"The light is magnificent in this space," said Sam Miller, project manager with LMN. Level 10 will feature an acoustical pillow ceiling, stained Worthwood floor and seating for 400.

At the north side, which receives the most sun, Miller said the design called for triple-glazed glass with aluminum mesh. The window system, he said, has not been used in the United States.

The library is expected to achieve a LEED silver rating. Hoffman Construction Co. is the general contractor/construction manager. Structural engineers were Arup and Magnusson Klemencic Associates. Steel fabricator was Canron West, and the steel erector was The Erection Co.

Andra Addison, communications director for the library, said a dispute resolution board is reviewing potential cost overruns and construction delays.