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

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

One thing I have noticed at least at the Golds on Broadway is that it's peak times of use may be early mornings and 4:30-6PM evenings or so but since I am not using the gym at the moment, I can't tell how crowded it is during that time. A good chunk of the work crowd here work from 8-5, more or less so during the day but if you are coming out during peak rush hour, downtown anyway is teaming w/ people and gets quite crowded w/ bodies all leaving work at roughly the same time but probably not quite what you are used to in SF.

[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.

Spelling quibble

[typographer.livejournal.com]

Because I so seldom get to do this.

It's Capitol Hill, because it was donated to the city a gazillion years ago (before Olympia became the state capital) with the intention that the building with the dome would be built there. :P

Since we didn't get to become the capital city (not the one with the dome, so no "o"), we didn't get the capitol building (the one with the dome, thus the "o"), but the hill had been named after the building the never was to be by then, so...

For an encore I can explain my silly rule for helping people remember that definite doesn't have an "a" in it. And I will go sit in the pettifoggers corner and shut up now. :P

[bukephalus.livejournal.com]

It was fun to meet both of you! Hope it's just the first of many meetings.

[badgerpdx.livejournal.com]

What did you think of the library? Part of me loved it and part of me thought it was a whole lotta building for not enough library. It was interesting, I'll give it that... but you nailed it on the head when you said puzzle. I was puzzling through most of it going "What was he on when he designed this thing?"

Re: Spelling quibble

[mister-don.livejournal.com]

Thanks for clearing this up, was confused when I was there "Where's the thing with the dome?"

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Even rush hour here doesn't look crowded to me! A sign of how jammed SF is, I think.

[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.

Re: Spelling quibble

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Correct, and without quibblers and pedants we'd all be lost in darkness. :-)

Usually I fact-check anything I'm not sure of, so I plead shortage of time!

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Of course I didn't recognize you with clothes on!

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

I think the building is interesting and surprisingly functional, but if I were a user I'd want a warmer feel; it's very "cold" in materials, and the grand spaces make you feel tiny. And as noted above, I'm wondering why cities still build huge central libraries when only a tiny fraction of users need access to the paper out on the long tail that used to require such a facility.

Re: Spelling quibble

[typographer.livejournal.com]

Given that I have two typos in my pettifoggery, you have no reason to plead anything!

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

It could be.