ee EE SS oo Seattle Public Library ProposalTle ea ie de back to the LFA Central Library page Seattle Public Library OM4/LMN December 1999 Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1999Seattle Public Library The Library represents, maybe with the prison, the last of the uncontested moral universes: communal accommodations for ‘good’ (or necessary) activities... The moral goodness af the Library is intimately connected to the value of the book: the Library is its fortress, librarians are its guardians... As other mediums of information emerge and become plausible, the Library seems threatened, a fortification ready to be ‘taken’ by potential enemies. In this scheme, the Electronic is identified with the Barbaric. Its ubiquity and its uncontrollable accessibility seem to represent a loss of control, depth, tradition, civilization. In response, the language of the Library has become moralistic and defensive: its rhetoric proclaims - implicity and explicitly - 8 sense of superiority in mission, in social responsibility, in value.,. The Library’ s insistence an one kind of literacy has blinded it to other emerging forms that increasingly dominate our culture, especially the huge efficiencies (and pleasures) of visual intelligence. New libraries don’t reinvent or even modernize the traditional institution; they merely package it in a new way. > Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1999At the same time, the last decade has shown an accelerated erosion of the Public Domain, replaced by increasingly sophisticated and entertaining forms of the Private, The essence of the Public is that it is free, Now, it is substituted by accumulations of quasi-public substance that, while suggesting welcome, actually make you pay, The Library stands exposed at its most outdated and moralistic at the moment that it has become the last repository of the free and the Public. Unless the Library transforms itself wholeheartedly into an information storehouse (aggressively orchestrating the coexistence of all available technologies to collect, condense, distribute, ‘ read and manipulate information), its unquestioned loyalty ta the book will undermine the Library’ s plausibility at the moment of its potential apotheosis Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1999 >The New Seattle Public Library Our ambition is to redefine / reinvent the Library as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated ta the book, but as an information store, where all media - new and old - are presented under a regime of new equalities. In an age where information can be accessed anywhere, it is the simultaneity of all media and the professionalism of their presentation and interaction, that will make the Library new. Technology is not a threat, but it enables the realization of ancient ambitions - totality, completeness, dissemination, accessibility, In any case, the anticipation of a looming conflict between the real and the virtual is moot at the moment where the two can be made ta coincide, become each other's mirror image. The virtual can become the distributed presence of the new Seattle Public Library that users find confirmed in its actual site in the city, Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1999 >10 Flexibility Flesibility in recent libraries - San Francisca, Denver, Phoenix: - has been conceived as the creation of floors on which almost any library activity can happen, Programs are not separated, rooms ar individual spaces not given unique character. In practice, it means that the bookshelves define generous reading areas at the opening, then expand inexorably ta encroach on public space. Ultimately, in this form of flexibility, the Library strangles its own attractions. 4 more plausible strategy divides the building into spatial campartments dedicated ta and equipped for specific duties. Flexibility can exist within each section, but not at the expense of any of the other 2 compartments... Change is possible by deliberately redefining use, rededicating compartments to new programs. (Cf the La Library, where the main reading room was successfully transformed into a children’ s library.) Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1388Compression The fact that the contents of a whole library can be stored on a single chip, or the fact that a single library can now store the digital content of all libraries, together represent potential re-thinking new forms of storage enable the space dedicated to real books to be contained; new forms of reading enhance the aura of the real book. Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 199914 Aura During the past decade, Seattle has played a pioneering role in the definition of a new society. In addition to the typical library, there will be ‘attractions! that exploit the location of the library system in Seattle, in the heart af its emerging culture, The areas of 'flight,' the digital revolution and the evolutions of corporate culture, will be highlighted by offering access to unique materials and archives, organized in specific cores. Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1999New Equalities Books have to share attention with other media of potent performance and attraction. A parallel exists between the vast proliferation and incredible intricacy of pragram in the New Library, and the equally explosive multiplication of information media and social obligations that has to be accommodated vwithin it MAGAZINES NEWSPAPERS “ BOOKS; 16 tenn se WORLD WIDE WEB ™ DATABASE: —_— =e — ronan usar, LP RECORD oma PHOTOCOPY morocort ui casserre sanociser CINEMA — com BoaK cone te sents PHOTOGRAPHY ‘Nereourer YELLOW aces mums ocuMeyTant scomr raremnac vos VIDEO vee MICROCHIP owen oer we nore eax COMPACT OISK comme CDROM sore Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 138%18 Social Role The Library has been transformed from a space to read rons sons into @ social center with multiple responsibilities ‘erm senrrunen vere scorer woe vate Each library today houses a proliferation of adjunct cocmemremems sooner canditians that creates a conceptual imbalance: bicapsehinioanal eater meas since its farmat has never been fundamentally REROTEACCESS. —_— adjusted to accommodate its new social role, ene ees the Library is like a host organism SAT ERHOTTS ere overwhelmed by its parasites ees es ene YOUNG ADULTS SERVICES YOUNG ADULTS SERVICES INFORMATION DESK ecm ek URRY WAR SERVICE PROGR ar narserce res CHILDREN'S COLLECTION eo PUBLIC BARBY. — CONCEPTION OF SERVICE EXPANDED CONCEPTION OF SEINE *WOOERW LIBRARY DEX" ‘oem am a: SPECIALIZATION preausinon aeencacaeron smpme snes INCREASED COMMUNITY PROMINENCE Denese oemovTT omen ADULT EDUCATION sa moesron aay wor roca aur toocmrocaaa save worse, wocwre seme TRAINING THE DISADVANTAGED ‘ruses et aapurTGeD |NFORAUTION AND REFERRAL CENTERS coun ws een es Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 199920 Contained SF Blue = Books The entire 2025 collection can be held comfortably s2sarow secoTa scos7o8 within one demarcated zone, 19,129 sf less than ‘tatoo originally allocated to it anemone vars at va 202 a] 2% 19,140 ff tera 219,628 st 219620 st oa 5% 70.000 st 70000 st 16h 16% ctty progran pp enieulations ‘oman eacutasons Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 138%= Platforms Our first operation has been the ‘combing’ and consolidation of the apparently ungovernable proliferation of programs and media, By combining like with like, we have identified five platforms, each a programmatic cluster that is architecturally defined and equipped for maximum, dedicated performance. Because each platform is designed for a unique purpose, they are different in size, density, opacity, The in-between spaces are like trading floors where librarians inform and stimulate, where the interface between the different platforms is organized - spaces for work, interaction, and play. (and reading) 22 wasrew scores operons roa acne es pt are seat hay tina rom ple erie rea shy Aree ae operations ~fi ia aa aga sana saenguirom precae —emalimiorgaienon (Py ee yee) rremiumerartcl2zs © (snwepe veer aura} ra calacten Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1999Lately differently to specific urban conditions), iconic. Its angular facets form, with the folds of Gehry's Experience Music Project, a plausible bracketing of Seattle's new modernity (DQUARTERS Ertan eo ae OBICALS sr ONS oo nts ota at Cte SS eee Ar Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1999Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1999ati mESeattle Public Library Proposal - December 1393Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1393Virtual Platform For the Seattle Public Library (SPL), the intersection of identity and legibility occurs in the realm of the virtual first For many, the first point of contact with the identity of the SPL will be the internet site. It offers a unique opportunity to declare the pleasures and benefits of the new Library, as well as its structure and strengths. The virtual functions also as a training ground - introducing the platform model, the hierarchy, features and formats af the new library, facilitating navigation (and reducing demand on staff) for visitor orientation in the real communities that will reqularly 'embody! themselves in the real building. Real and virtual space are conceived in parallel, as part of the same architecture. The communication strategies that provide access and clarity in the space of the library are mirrored in the virtual platform 38 The Seattle Public Library Terrace os 5 Reading Room erty 4 Mixing Chamb: 3 Living Room nN Attraction Kids Ceo = Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 199940 SECS “ah IORK SHOP, operations TAT RE Ena AB NO Bunn level -3 parking Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 199942 Store Platform TZ \\ eee tie level - 2 living room i Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 138844 Assembly Platform level-4 mixing chamber level - 3 assembly & electronics > Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 199946 Books Platform = — —SS= => level - 6 - books = — SS SS level -7 books foval -5 books Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 139348 Headquarters Platform level - 11 roof terrace level - 9 periodicals level - 10 headquarters Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 199950 wees |WW.SPL.COM/~MIXING CHAMBER Seattle Public Library Propos:Seattle Public Library Proposal - December 1999een eebei eel Rete tea abet DeliteDesign for the new Central Library Fifteen floors will span five platforms. Roo! terrace °©2 068e08 080 1) a) Kids 2| Lobby 3| Internet, TV | || Reading room Operations Coffee shop CD-ROM Books Parking Staff E-books Headquarters Popular fiction ‘Auditorium Periodicals sy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencerieee (lel more eee aia iy NESeattle Public Library Proposal