Anyone been visiting the new library yet? I think it looks amazing, but since I live in sweden its kind of hard to take look for myself! (...just found out about archinect, really like it though!!)
I agree!
I think Koolhaas direction with his latest projects (this and the cctv-building) is interesting. He is really taking steps forward, developing his aestetic with folding slabs and continous surfaces. But here the facade is rather a continous envelope, not necissarly expressing the different floors.
I think a lot of the stuff coming out of Holland at the moment is just becomming shallow form-experiments, a genre influenced by Koolhaas and Mvrdv´s work, but lacking their programatic and urban qualities. They just become objects, and quite boring as such!
The interiors, materials, cheap/exclusive feel. Gotta love it, funny though how the media and clients emphasize the "rational design". Im sure it has been conceived programmatically and is comparatively cheap but after reading Content its clear that OMA makes formal decisions and strives after iconic shapes.
Could it be that Koolhaas success has come after realigning himself imagewise as a rational architect and suppressed the archi-semantic reference feast of his early work. Clients love to hear that they have commissioned a rational building not wasted money on archiporn.
The organistional moves that creates the building shape are very diagrammatical, the enery and life of the building comes from sticking to the initial diagram without ironing out the creases (punk rock stylee). To be rational though one would have to work the creases out and ruin the building.
Yeah, guess youre right about being rational (or rather not so rational!), and sure, the guys iconic... maybe it´s not so far from Gehrys "hey, lets put my city on the map" architecture!? I think however that koolhaas avoids to be symbolic, the building doesnt looks like somthing else we know, not even in the different elements of the building( constructive elements, windows) ...well its just a massive steel-grid!. And I like that.
What I was saying that I was curious if the building details still work in 5 years time, as most Koolhaas buildings look great when they're completed, but tend to fall apart after a couple of years, did they get it right this time?
BTW I'm sure that in 5 years time it's still magazine-cover material
went there last week. pretty cool. i am a whole lot more impressed with the interior than exterior. although the shape is definitely quite interesting, it seems a bit awkward to me. but, the interior is fucking brilliant. when one walks in on either fourth or fifth avenues, they are greeted with an enormous cathedral-like space, with exposed structure soaring at least 30-40 feet, and the relevant angles all offering some form of thought provoking notion. the interior finishes are very clean, seemingly cheap (i guess).
"meeting room" floor is this weird red cloud-like mezzanine sandwiched between levels that is very cool. seems like candy apple red painted fiberglass. the weird thing about this space, however, is the fact that it is valuptuous compared to the angular nature of the rest of the thing.
the escalators are a seemingly simple way of going up, but they don't take you down. that is solved by a hard-to-find staircase...i'm still confused as to the circulation in the actual library stacks.
There are clean, minimal, yet confortable reading spaces adjacent to books everywhere. but, unfortunately, people will need maps for a little while until they get the circulation figured out. I love the fact that the place has a high-tech feel, copmplete with library book conveyor-return system. It does not feel institutional at all, rather like a university media or science center. i think koolhaas has definitely evolved the library into a soft "information center." i hope anyone doing a library will take the time to study the thing.
There is no grace to the building, imho. I can't make a conclusion without being there, but from the pictures it looks (the formal and material qualities) like a B- project from a second year studio (in undergrad). No relation to the context - I mean, damn, if you go for form make it at least look good.
Still, it's intriguing and I would visit it, but there are so many other buildings that are great escaping the spotlight that I can't feel troubled look at it.
Ok, now I know what it's like on the inside....glad I don't have to read there. Could have been interesting...the H + M Prada store comes to mind for a successful example of structural skin and a pleasant interior.
I don't have time to say much at the moment, but I agree with the sentiment that the interior is far superior to the exterior.
Pragmatically speaking the finishes are super cool/modern/cheap, but unfortunatley I'm afraid the will degrade poorly and will get really ugly in about 6 months...
An example are these cool closed cell foam chairs and seating pods...I think they are going to get dirty, picked apart, and written on...although I don't think they will look as bad as the silicon seating pads at the NY Prada store, which trapped all sorts of human fluids and oils on the surface turning them into a cloudy mess.
On another note...the word from those in the know are suggesting that nobody is quite sure where the $ is going to come from to pay for the window washing...
I have a bunch of pics I will be posting this weekend in the photo gallery....in the meantime go here for some interesting shots from a photographer:
Came across some cool photos of the building, thought I'd share in case people here have not seen it. Good way to see the building if you can't make it to Seattle.
For whatever reason, I really, really like chartreuse now. A lot.
As well - for some other reason - I was reading up on some Feng Shui colour theory (my girlfriend's mom is really into this stuff, and it starts to make you a bit paranoid after a while) and they noted that red, being quite powerful and energizing, can make you a bit angry if there's too much of it. Far be it from me to take such notions as Gospel, but wouldn't you get at least a tad pensive in the meeting-room area?
Anyhow, I really like the place all in all. NYT had a really great article with some neat extra features a while ago. They couldn't stop praising it, though. Sadly, it's fallen into the archives: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/16/arts/design/16MUSC.html
I've been by to see it take shape periodically. I'm really imressed with the way it sits in the city. i see the library taking a stance within the city the way the Seagram Building did in Manhattan. It just carves out some amazing volumes within the city public space. And its doubly interesting for being on a steep inclined sloped site. Its neighor buildings are the luckiest archi-voyeurs.
I think I'm more worried about the success of the inside hearing you folks say its not very durable. I think the outside will be historically durable.
BTW, we had the furniture folks in the office for a lunch presentation. those foamy chairs are pretty amazing. you can push a pen into them with 250# of pressure and they return to their original shape without a tear. i tried it on the sample they brought.
...and very intelligent skin too. It semmes to give the reading room a nice and calm atmosphere. I not sure that the space desrves it though. This one seems too open space for a library. I bet it's not as confortable as exeter, but it's definitely sexier..
New public library in Seattle
Anyone been visiting the new library yet? I think it looks amazing, but since I live in sweden its kind of hard to take look for myself! (...just found out about archinect, really like it though!!)
According the images avaible on the web, I think this building comes close to Koolhaas-perfection.
Will be very curious what the building will look like in 5 years though.....
I agree!
I think Koolhaas direction with his latest projects (this and the cctv-building) is interesting. He is really taking steps forward, developing his aestetic with folding slabs and continous surfaces. But here the facade is rather a continous envelope, not necissarly expressing the different floors.
I think a lot of the stuff coming out of Holland at the moment is just becomming shallow form-experiments, a genre influenced by Koolhaas and Mvrdv´s work, but lacking their programatic and urban qualities. They just become objects, and quite boring as such!
The interiors, materials, cheap/exclusive feel. Gotta love it, funny though how the media and clients emphasize the "rational design". Im sure it has been conceived programmatically and is comparatively cheap but after reading Content its clear that OMA makes formal decisions and strives after iconic shapes.
Could it be that Koolhaas success has come after realigning himself imagewise as a rational architect and suppressed the archi-semantic reference feast of his early work. Clients love to hear that they have commissioned a rational building not wasted money on archiporn.
The organistional moves that creates the building shape are very diagrammatical, the enery and life of the building comes from sticking to the initial diagram without ironing out the creases (punk rock stylee). To be rational though one would have to work the creases out and ruin the building.
Yeah, guess youre right about being rational (or rather not so rational!), and sure, the guys iconic... maybe it´s not so far from Gehrys "hey, lets put my city on the map" architecture!? I think however that koolhaas avoids to be symbolic, the building doesnt looks like somthing else we know, not even in the different elements of the building( constructive elements, windows) ...well its just a massive steel-grid!. And I like that.
And I suppose what I ment earlier was that when a continous surface becomes a form in the collective mind -it becomes a symbol for something. And if you loose the reasons for folding or whatever, because you´re turned on by how it looks...( like I think a lot of ém are) you´re fucked... whatever you do will look dated in five years, as their only quality is being trendy in a superficial, magazine-cover-way!
What I was saying that I was curious if the building details still work in 5 years time, as most Koolhaas buildings look great when they're completed, but tend to fall apart after a couple of years, did they get it right this time?
BTW I'm sure that in 5 years time it's still magazine-cover material
And just like Alan Loomis predicted...
The Kunstler selected the SPL as the Eyesore of the Month for June
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore.html
yeah kunstler! i think the interiors of the SPL are really intereteting but the exterior is a big piece of scaleless nonsense.
went there last week. pretty cool. i am a whole lot more impressed with the interior than exterior. although the shape is definitely quite interesting, it seems a bit awkward to me. but, the interior is fucking brilliant. when one walks in on either fourth or fifth avenues, they are greeted with an enormous cathedral-like space, with exposed structure soaring at least 30-40 feet, and the relevant angles all offering some form of thought provoking notion. the interior finishes are very clean, seemingly cheap (i guess).
"meeting room" floor is this weird red cloud-like mezzanine sandwiched between levels that is very cool. seems like candy apple red painted fiberglass. the weird thing about this space, however, is the fact that it is valuptuous compared to the angular nature of the rest of the thing.
the escalators are a seemingly simple way of going up, but they don't take you down. that is solved by a hard-to-find staircase...i'm still confused as to the circulation in the actual library stacks.
There are clean, minimal, yet confortable reading spaces adjacent to books everywhere. but, unfortunately, people will need maps for a little while until they get the circulation figured out. I love the fact that the place has a high-tech feel, copmplete with library book conveyor-return system. It does not feel institutional at all, rather like a university media or science center. i think koolhaas has definitely evolved the library into a soft "information center." i hope anyone doing a library will take the time to study the thing.
I can't seem to find some nice detailed pictures from this building... Any good links?
thx in advance.
There is no grace to the building, imho. I can't make a conclusion without being there, but from the pictures it looks (the formal and material qualities) like a B- project from a second year studio (in undergrad). No relation to the context - I mean, damn, if you go for form make it at least look good.
Still, it's intriguing and I would visit it, but there are so many other buildings that are great escaping the spotlight that I can't feel troubled look at it.
Seattle Public Library, Rem Koolhaas (photos by R. Ruiz)
more images in the gallery
It looks like Archigram doped up on Capitalism.
Ok, now I know what it's like on the inside....glad I don't have to read there. Could have been interesting...the H + M Prada store comes to mind for a successful example of structural skin and a pleasant interior.
i second that on the Prada Store.
I just noticed that there is a floor by Ann Hamilton, and a video projection planned by Gary Hill. Niiiiiiice to see decent public art finally.
The library rocks, now I have to get up to seattle.
All I want know is; if the skate park is half as good as the Educatoriums, it'll be worth the trip!
how do you grind that shit without coping?
Well hopefully Rem learned something from the Educatorium and will add coping in the Library!
I don't have time to say much at the moment, but I agree with the sentiment that the interior is far superior to the exterior.
Pragmatically speaking the finishes are super cool/modern/cheap, but unfortunatley I'm afraid the will degrade poorly and will get really ugly in about 6 months...
An example are these cool closed cell foam chairs and seating pods...I think they are going to get dirty, picked apart, and written on...although I don't think they will look as bad as the silicon seating pads at the NY Prada store, which trapped all sorts of human fluids and oils on the surface turning them into a cloudy mess.
On another note...the word from those in the know are suggesting that nobody is quite sure where the $ is going to come from to pay for the window washing...
I have a bunch of pics I will be posting this weekend in the photo gallery....in the meantime go here for some interesting shots from a photographer:
http://polyrealism.com/photo/library/library.html
JAG
Came across some cool photos of the building, thought I'd share in case people here have not seen it. Good way to see the building if you can't make it to Seattle.
http://www.figure-ground.com/travel/image.php?spl
For whatever reason, I really, really like chartreuse now. A lot.
As well - for some other reason - I was reading up on some Feng Shui colour theory (my girlfriend's mom is really into this stuff, and it starts to make you a bit paranoid after a while) and they noted that red, being quite powerful and energizing, can make you a bit angry if there's too much of it. Far be it from me to take such notions as Gospel, but wouldn't you get at least a tad pensive in the meeting-room area?
Anyhow, I really like the place all in all. NYT had a really great article with some neat extra features a while ago. They couldn't stop praising it, though. Sadly, it's fallen into the archives: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/16/arts/design/16MUSC.html
I've been by to see it take shape periodically. I'm really imressed with the way it sits in the city. i see the library taking a stance within the city the way the Seagram Building did in Manhattan. It just carves out some amazing volumes within the city public space. And its doubly interesting for being on a steep inclined sloped site. Its neighor buildings are the luckiest archi-voyeurs.
I think I'm more worried about the success of the inside hearing you folks say its not very durable. I think the outside will be historically durable.
BTW, we had the furniture folks in the office for a lunch presentation. those foamy chairs are pretty amazing. you can push a pen into them with 250# of pressure and they return to their original shape without a tear. i tried it on the sample they brought.
i can't wait to see the inside for myself.
Wondeful project. I wish I could go visit it. Hopefully he will win Les Halles so that in ten years he will be part of the skyline here too.
...and very intelligent skin too. It semmes to give the reading room a nice and calm atmosphere. I not sure that the space desrves it though. This one seems too open space for a library. I bet it's not as confortable as exeter, but it's definitely sexier..
$10 to park in the garage
As I recall the LA pubilc library is $6/20 minutes. You can get it validated but I don't recall how long that's good for.
parking is expensive in the downtown of any major city.
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