Seattle Central Library spread

SEATTLE CENTRAL LIBRARY

By David Bowermaster

This is -by far- one of the most inspiring projects I know. And it’s not just the skin or the structure. It’s the new program relations, that make of this more than a mere library, but an enhanced public space around knowledge.

“The problem of traditional library organization is flatness.”

Reading room

Book store

View of downtown Seattle

The Seattle Central Library redefines the library

areas on opening day, but, through the collection’s relentless expansion, inevita-

as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated to the

bly come to encroach on the public space. Ultimately, in this form of flexibility, the

book, but as an information store where all potent forms

library strangles the very attractions that differentiate it from other information

of media—new and old—are presented equally and

resources.

legibly. In an age where information can be accessed anywhere, it is the simultaneity of all media and, more importantly, the curatorship of their content that will make the library vital.

Flexibility in contemporary libraries is conceived as the creation of generic floors on which almost any activity can occur. Programs are not separated, rooms or individual spaces not given unique characters. In practice, this means that bookcases define generous (though nondescript) reading

Exterior view from Fifth Street

Living room

“By combining like with like, we identified programmatic clusters: five of stability and four of instability.”

In 1920, the Seattle Public Library had no classification for Computer Science; by 1990 the section had exploded. As collections unpredictably swell, materials are dissociated from their categories. Excess materi-

Instead of its current ambiguous flexibility, the library could cultivate a more re-

The spaces in between the platforms function as trading floors where li-

als are put in the basement, moved to off-site stor-

fined approach by organizing itself into spatial compartments, each dedicated to,

brarians inform and stimulate, where the interface between the different platforms

age, or become squatters of another, totally unrelated

is organized—spaces for work, interaction, and play.

department.

and equipped for, specific duties. Tailored flexibility remains possible within each compartment, but without the threat of one section hindering the others.

By genetically modifying the superposition of floors in the typical American

The Book Spiral implies a reclamation of the

Our first operation was to “comb” and consolidate the library’s apparently ungovern-

high rise, a building emerges that is at the same time sensitive (the geometry provides

much-compromised Dewey Decimal System. By ar-

able proliferation of programs and media. By combining like with like, we identified

shade or unusual quantities of daylight where desirable), contextual (each side reacts

ranging the collection in a continuous ribbon—run-

programmatic clusters: five of stability and four of instability.

differently to specific urban conditions or desired views), iconic.

ning from 000 to 999—the subjects form a coexis-

Each platform is a programmatic cluster that is architecturally defined and

The problem of traditional library organization is flatness. Departments are or-

tence that approaches the organic; each evolves

equipped for maximum, dedicated performance. Because each platform is designed for

ganized according to floor plans. Each floor is discreet; the unpredictable fits of growth

relative to the others, occupying more or less space

a unique purpose, their size, flexibility, circulation, palette, structure, and MEP vary.

and contraction in certain sections are, theoretically, contained within a single floor.

on the ribbon, but never forcing a rupture.