Lock up your valuables and clear your coffee mugs from the table. We’re about to discuss the Seattle Central Library, and we’re gonna need a lot of space.
For the next several paragraphs, we need free hands with easy access to all ten fingers and toes because each and every digit will be used to properly “count the ways.” Make sure you’re wearing loose-fitting pants and surrounded by ample floor space because our communal excitement is about to make the Ministry of Silly Walks look conventional.
When I first visited Central Library I was stimulated and inspired to the point of near paralysis. The building covers 362,987 square feet, but I needed more. I needed an outlet to contain my mental excitement. With the capacity for 1.45 million books and educational materials, the Central Library is an unparalleled transmitter of information. Even second-hand encounters with a cultural hot zone of this magnitude can be overwhelming. Today, I’m here to keep you afloat as you wade into the educational flood waters of the nation’s most impressive library.
So, whether or not this is your first introduction to Rem Koolhaas‘ architectural wonder, I suggest that you utilize the following italicized commands. Each fact will be accompanied with a suggested movement (ex. lunge) that will help to channel and reduce the exorbitant amount of adrenaline typically experienced during times of mental stimulation. Feel free to repeat the recommended movement several times. By keeping our bodies as active as our minds, we should be able to appropriately process all that the Central Library has to offer.
Stretch. The Central Library opened to the public in May of 2004 and is located at 1000 4th Avenue in Seattle’s downtown district.
All eleven floors are vertically stacked in an oddly angled glass building that some say resembles a cheese grater. Love it or hate it – over two million individuals visited the library in its first year.
Jog in place. Central Library uses an automated materials handling system – the largest and only of its kind in the country. Automated checkout machines combined with radio frequency ID chips allow patrons to check out an entire stack of books at one time. An online catalog provides photos of requested items plus diagrams showing the exact location of items in the library. Central Library’s automated sorting system moves books up a conveyer belt and routes them to the correct bins.
Jumping Jacks. The ground floor of the library is made of maple. It is an art installation created by Ann Hamilton consisting of 556 repeated lines of raised text, written in reverse, and detailed in eleven languages found in the library’s collection.
Sit-ups. The majority of the building’s carpeting features the work of Dutch designer Petra Blaisse. Specializing in textile, landscape, and exhibition design, Blaisse’s photographs of various plant material has been silk-screened onto the carpet fabric in order to complement the beauty of the Northwest.
Burpees. The Central Library includes a children’s room that equals thee size of the largest branch libraries in the city. This kiddie “corner” includes a separate story room that seats more than 100 small bodies. Gangling teenagers can sulk freely in the Young Adult Section marked by a loudly colored orange floor.
Jump Rope. The Mixing Chamber – Central Library’s main reference service desk – contains 145 of the building’s 400 public computers.
Free tax preparation and electronic filing services are available daily. The Central Library is also a part of LEAP (Library Equal Access Program) which provides adaptive equipment for people with disabilities. The Mixing Chamber also features an electronic installation by artist George Legrady that uses check-out data to show what the community is currently reading.
Push-Ups. The Seattle Central Library boasts a 275 seat auditorium sponsored by Microsoft. Directly below the auditorium is a public parking garage with 143 spaces – two of which are reserved for plugging in electric cars.
Arm Circles. Level 9 contains the biggest Genealogy section in the Northwest, and the staff includes a special genealogy librarian to help patrons with research. The library also offers workshops on how to get started tracing family histories with forms on hand for requesting birth/death certificates among other commonly requested data.
Lunges. Staff librarians use Vocera wireless communication badges to communicate with each other. These devices were originally developed for use in hospitals.
Calf Raises. The escalator ride between levels three and five feature Tony Oursler‘s talking video sculptures. Video clips of various talking faces are projected on an oval thereby creating a floating audiovisual reminiscent of Humpty Dumpty 2K11.
Deep Breaths [repeat until excitement is properly contained]. After you have caught your breath, feel free to visit a meditative pose of your liking to reflect on the all-encompassing knowledge and wisdom of the Seattle Central Library. While there are certainly many more facts to unfold, it is always best to begin slowly. Once you have built up your tolerance to properly digest massive amounts of artistic, technological, architectural, and educational knowledge and creativity, feel free to explore Central Library with practiced yet reckless abandon.