The Seattle P-I has a wonderful exploratory piece on the failures of the new library. Lauded for "[...launching] both the image and substance of the Seattle Public Library into a new era" while chastised for lacking spaces "conducive to intimacy with a book," this is a fair and well-executed opinion piece placing its finger on a distinct lack of warmth. Indeed, I have found that the mixing chamber looks a little too inspired by Gilliam's "Brazil." This is a building which focuses on the design of access to information without much thought to the ingestion of that information.

I love taking visitors to see the new library but I've never actually gone there to read even though it's a scant two blocks away from my work. This seems odd to me considering that I spend about an hour a day reading at one of several local coffee shops. I do want to try going for a good read on the 10th floor, if for nothing other than the view, but I'd love to see what the author of this piece is calling for - a timely reconsideration and re-examination. Many of the issues (furniture / warmth) are with superficial and not structural elements, they can be changed.

Quoted: I'm beginning to suspect that the building's celebrated splotches of weirdness -- the red sea-monster-bowel corridors on the fourth level, the bile-yellow elevators and escalators, the vertiginous canyon overlooks on the upper levels -- exist to draw attention away from the fact that most of its work and pleasure spaces are actually cheaply finished or dysfunctional. And that the building's working viscera are failing at fulfilling the promise of its stunning skin.

I took some photos at the Seattle Public Library yesterday. It's a truly amazing place.