Seattle Monday

[drscott]

Today I was on my own - Paul left before I woke up. Took my time eating breakfast and showering, caught up on reading, then walked over to see the new Central Library building designed by Rem Koolhaas. I took lots of pictures -- it's quite a puzzle. Much easier getting to the top than going back down. Large number of homeless hanging out peacefully enjoying it. Vancouver and San Francisco have also done the big-name-architect, signature-building new library, and I'm not sure it makes any sense as any more than a monument to civic pride -- floors full of Internet carrels? Why not have small facilities all over the city for that, and leave the central library for paper?

Then I went back to the gym on Capital Hill (20-minute walk) and worked out. I realized that my time in San Francisco, with its very crowded gyms, streets, and sidewalks, makes Seattle seem empty. There was hardly anyone in the gym at 3 PM -- one person for every ten stations, perhaps, where on Market Street at that hour there would be one for every two. By the time I left at 4:30, it wasn't quite as much of a ghost town, but I kept wondering where everyone was....

Met up with tdjohnsn for some tea and conversation, then headed back early when it turned out Paul had arrived back at the hotel unexpectedly early. Then it was downstairs for drinks, off to Capital Hill (this time in the car) for dinner with bukephalus at a nice little restaurant with piano music.

Got home and went to bed early (or I will soon.)

Comments

[mister-don.livejournal.com]

I will have to venture that origami glass boxes don't rate as very functional buildings, supposedly one of the prime tenets of modernism. Too, besides the apparent wastage of space, there is the requirement to light, heat, and cool it, clearly a consideration even in as mild a climate as Seattle's. Still, it's a vastly better building than its predecessor, which I saw on my visit to Seattle in '01, but I'd have to contend that neither approach the architectural qualities of the Beaux-Arts original library. Many communities that bought into the mindset a generation ago that their Carnegie, etc. library buildings were too formal and intimidating and replaced them now wish they had not. I greatly enjoyed Seattle and its architecture on my visit but noted the lack of civic presence in its public buildings.
At the risk of seeming cantankerous all over someone else's blog I'd have to note that internet capabilities rate as a major library function and that the traditional concept of a library as a repository of books in hard copy would serve very few.

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing the resource usage profile isn't very good. But it does achieve the goal of ample natural light, which is a big problem in Seattle winters.

My point was about no longer needing centralization. Even now internet access is everywhere, and soon every child will have a slate of their own, so a large facility most city residents can't get to shows little foresight.