Since we were already downtown, we visited one of the places I had been itching to see since I had come to Seattle... the Seattle Central Library. It was built in 2004, and in 2007 was voted #108 on the American Institute of Architects' list of Americans' 150 favorite structures in the US. It was also voted #2 on the "top 10 favorite things to take pictures of in Seattle" list.
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.
The 'Living Room' is a favorite meeting place for patrons as well as a mini botanical garden.
From the ground floor you can see the vibrantly colored escalators that take you to each floor, the "Red Room" up in the top left, as well as the famous wrapping floors. The floors form a gentle slope that rises 4 stories to house the books. It is perfectly designed as to not break up the Dewey Decimal System into different sections on different floors. How clever.
One of the many quiet sections for reading and studying.
Another, yet a little more relaxed. If you look through the glass walls you can see the other buildings in downtown Seattle on a cloudy winter's day.
My favorite part of the whole 11 stories... The Red Room. It is a collection of meeting rooms. It was designed to look like the 'heart' of the building what with its curving arteries and striking red color.
The lady who would not get out of my pictures helps give it a little perpective.
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