May 23, 2004
Seattle, Washington
Rem Koolhaas (Office for Metropolitan Architecture)
Pritzker Prize Laureate
With Seattle Partner, LMN Architects
Photo of Seattle Public Library © Charlie Schuck / Getty Images
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Rem Koolhaas' radical, deconstructivist design for the Seattle Public Library has been praised... and questioned. Early critics said that Seattle was "bracing for a wild ride with a man famous for straying outside the bounds of convention."
Fast Facts:
- Grand Opening: May 23, 2004
- Budget: $165.9 million
- Library program area: 362,987 square feet
- Construction: Concrete (enough to fill 10 football fields 1-foot deep), steel (enough to make 20 Statues of Liberty), and glass (enough to cover 5 1/2 football fields).
- Glass Curtain Wall: The exterior "skin" is insulated, earthquake-resistant glass on a steel structure. Diamond-shaped (4 by 7 foot) glass units allow natural lighting. In addition to coated clear glass, half of the glass diamonds contain aluminum sheet metal between glass layers. This triple-layered, "metal mesh glass" reduces heat and glare. The Seattle Library was the first U.S. building to install this type of glass. The glass is cleaned at least twice a year. Storm water running off the building is stored and used for irrigating the landscape around the building.
The library's website has additional Building Facts About the Central Library.
Koolhaas told reporters that he wanted "the building to signal that something special is going on here."
Some have said the design looks like a glass book opening up and ushering in a new age of library use. The traditional notion of a library as a place devoted solely to books has changed in the information age. Although the design includes book stacks, emphasis is placed on spacious community spaces and areas for media such as technology, photography, and video. Four hundred computers connect the library to the rest of the world, beyond the views of Mount Rainier and Puget Sound.
