Four more cents on the library

Two cents from Will Fleishell as he points us to this webpage about Rem Koolhaas' Seattle Public Library. To reiterate the point I made in the last entry, why should we expect a modernist architect to do any better with the library now, check out the images. Many people talk about what a great library the new Seattle library is, although in this article from the Seattle Times, "A streetcar to inspire, in Portland," a child comments on how much she prefers the Portland main library, which is a traditional building. From the article:

Where would you rather spend an afternoon, at the ultra-modern library in downtown Seattle or the historical library in Portland, my wife asked our daughter. "Oh, Portland!" our daughter exclaimed. "It's a beautiful library! The one in Seattle makes you feel like a pod person!"

The photos from the Arcspace site leave me cold.

According to the article, Nicolai Ouroussoff, now the architecture writer for the New York Times wrote that "The stacks, arranged along a continuous spiral ramp contained within a four-story slab, reinforce a sense of a world organized with machine-like precision."

We are not machines!

Two more cents from the Marc Fisher blog in the Post. He favors a new library, and figures that Marion Barry will vote in favor of it. (I tend to think he's right about the vote. We'll see.)

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