Seattle Central Library
Welcome to Rem's House of Style
Photo by Pragnesh Parikh, OMA/LMN The Seattle Central Library stands near completion, viewed from the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Spring Street.
|
The new central library is the stylish centerpiece of Seattle Public Library’s $196.4 million “Libraries for All” program.
Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas, the library’s angular glass exterior houses a unique offset-platform system that organizes the building.
The staff platform at the library’s base includes the colorful children’s area and an English-as-a-second-language room with maple flooring carved with texts from around of the world. A 275-auditorium connects to the living room, a soaring space that visitors can enter from Fifth Avenue.
The assembly platform comprises the meeting-room floor — a sensuous red cocoon — and supports the hub of the library, the mixing chamber.
Photo courtesy of Seattle Public Library
|
The books platform includes the nonfiction collection, which is arranged along a spiral that leads to the reading room, where visitors can enjoy dramatic views of the city and Puget Sound.
Above, the headquarters platform contains office and conference space.
King County, over the past 15 years, has seen a boom in library construction. With more projects to come, this Seattle Central Library special section also looks more broadly at library design and construction.
Central library fast facts
|
Location: 1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle
Cost: $165.5 million
(includes Temporary Central Library)
Size: 363,000 square feet, plus a
49,000-square-foot parking garage
Opening: May 23
|
Photo courtesy of Seattle Public Library
|
Project team
|
Owner: Seattle Public Library
Development manager: The Seneca Group, Seattle
Architects: Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam;
in joint venture with LMN Architects, Seattle
General contractor: Hoffman Construction Co., Seattle
Structural engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates,
Seattle; with Arup, Los Angeles and London
Mechanical/electrical engineer: Arup, Los Angeles
and London
Civil engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Seattle
Geotechnical engineer: Hart Crowser, Seattle
Acoustical engineer: Michael R. Yantis Associates, Seattle
Steel erection: The Erection Co., Arlington
Cost estimation: Davis Langdon Adamson, Seattle
Landscape architecture: Inside/Outside, Amsterdam;
Jones & Jones, Seattle
Interior design:OMA/LMN joint venture;
Inside/Outside, Amsterdam
Graphics: Bruce Mau Design, Toronto
Lighting: Kugler Tillotson Associates, New York
Life safety: Pielow Fair Associates, Seattle
Information technology consultant: Sparling, Seattle
ADA: McGuire Associates, Newburgh, N.Y.
|
|