SEATTLE CENTRAL LIBRARY, USA, SEATTLE, 2004
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| New public library with welcoming, intuitive public spaces and uniquely flexible shelving system |
By OMA © All rights reserved
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Panoramic Walkthrough 1 | Panoramic Walkthrough 2 At a moment when libraries are perceived to be under threat from a shrinking public realm on one side and digitization on the other, the Seattle Central Library creates a civic space for the circulation of knowledge in all media, and an innovative organizing system for an ever-growing physical collection – the Books Spiral. The library's various programs are intuitively arranged across five platforms and four flowing "in between" planes, which together dictate the building’s distinctive faceted shape, offering the city an inspiring building that is robust in both its elegance and its logic. more.. |
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OMA's ambition is to redefine the library as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated to the book, but rather as an information store where all potent forms of media – new and old – are presented equally and legibly. In an age in which information can be accessed anywhere, it is the simultaneity of media and (more importantly) the curatorship of its contents that will make the library vital.
Our first operation was to "comb" and consolidate the library's apparently ungovernable proliferation of programs and media. We identified five "stable" programmatic clusters (parking, staff, meeting, Book Spiral, HQ) and arranged them on overlapping platforms, and four "unstable" clusters (kids, living room, Mixing Chamber, reading room) to occupy interstitial zones. Each area is architecturally defined and equipped for dedicated performance, with varying size, flexibility, circulation, palette, and structure. The Mixing Chamber, centrally located on the third floor, is an area of maximum librarian-patron interaction – a trading floor for information orchestrated to fulfill an essential (though often neglected) need for expert interdisciplinary help. Librarians guide readers up into the Books Spiral, a continuous ramp of shelving forming a co-existence between categories that approaches the organic: each evolves relative to the others, occupying more or less space on the Spiral, but never forcing the ruptures within sections that bedevil traditional library plans. Upon the opening of the Seattle Central Library, the Spiral's 6,233 bookcases housed 780,000 books, and can accommodate growth up to 1,450,000 books in the future without adding more bookcases. Original project proposal, 1999 |
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FACT SHEET
OMA / LMN – A Joint Venture Location: Seattle, USA Status: Commissioned: 1999 Completed: 2004 Site: City block located at 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104 Program: Total 38,300m2, including 33,700m2 reading room, book spiral, mixing chamber, meeting platform, living room, staff floor, children's collection, auditorium, and 4,600m2 of parking Client: The Seattle Public Library Budget: $111.9 million
COLLABORATORS
Structural: Arup: Cecil Balmond, Atila Zekioglu, Anders Carlson, Chris Carroll MEP: Alistair Guthrie, Bruce McKinlay, Stephen Jolly, John Gautrey, Aung Oo, Vahik Davoudi, Amanda Brownlee, Russell Fortmeyer, Tony Cocea, Marina Solovchuk, Fiona Cousins, Christin Whitco Fire: Armin Wolski, Jim Quiter IT & A/V: Jonathan Phillips, Raymond Tam, Eric Lockwood, Menandro Domingo Magnusson Klemencic Associates Structural: Jon Magnusson, Jay Taylor, Derek Beaman, Hans Blomgren, Nathalie Boeholt Civil: Drew Gagnes, Darin Stephens Other Consultants Acoustics: Michael Yantis Associates – Michael Yantis, Basel Jurdy ADA: McGuire Associates – Kevin McGuire Artists: Ann Hamilton, Gary Hill, Tony Oursler Cost: Davis Langdon Adamson – Steve Kelly, David Hudd, Alice Nguyen Environmental Graphics: Bruce Mau Design Facades: Dewhurst Macfarlane & Partners – Marc Simmons, Yu-Ting Chen Facade Pre-construction Services: Seele GmbH – Gerhard Seele, Siegfried Gossner, Thomas Geissler, Martin Kugler, Jenniffer Endress Hardware: Gordon Adams Consulting – Gordon Adams Interiors: OMA / LMN, Inside Outside: Petra Blaisse, Marieke van den Heuvel, Mathias Lehner, Lieuwe Conradie, Peter Niessen, Jaap de Vries, Maarten van Severen Landscape: Inside Outside / Jones & Jones – Ilze Jones, Jim Brighton, Shaney Clemmons Lighting: Kugler Tillotson Associates – Suzan Tillotson, Wai Mun Chui Pre-construction Services: Hoffman Construction Washington – Doug Winn, Bob Vincent, Dale Stenning Vertical Transport: HKA Elevator Consulting – Daryl Anderson
PRESS
New York Times, 16 May 2004 A+U, #428 May 2006 AIT, December 2006 Architectural Digest (Russian) #11, 2006 Architektura #9, September 2006 Archplus #178, June 2006 Arquitectura e arte, December 2006 Casa Brutus, #74 May 2006 Centras, #4 2006 De Architect, #1 January 2006 DWCorporate #3, 2005 FuturArc, #3Q 2006 Helsingin Sanomat, 6 September 2006 Huig, #5 Winter 2005 L'industria della costruzioni, #387 1 February 2006 Lotus international, #127 2006 Lotus international, #128 2006 Mac Power, #1 January 2006 Praxis, #8 2006
AWARDS
Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification 2005 Honor Award for Outstanding Architecture American Institute of Architects 2005 Outstanding Library Building Award American Institute of Architects and American Library Association 2005 Platinum Award for Innovation and Engineering American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC)
SUSTAINABILITY
Extract from Seattle Public Library Website: Building a Sustainable Central Library The Seattle Central Library has many design elements and features to lessen its energy and environmental impact on our planet. Elements that contribute to making the design, building, and long-term use of the new Central Library green and sustainable include: Sustainable Site Erosion and sedimentation control during construction; re-building on same site; located on major bus routes; bicycle parking spaces; landscaping and exterior design to reduce "heat island effect;" automatic lighting controls to reduce light pollution. Water Efficiency Plants selected to require little water; all irrigation provided by rainwater collected from building exterior and stored in a 40,000-gallon tank; interior water use reduced by metered faucets, no-flush urinals and efficient mechanical equipment. Energy & Atmosphere Building designed to outperform Seattle energy code by 10 percent; about half the glass used in the curtain wall is triple-glazed with an aluminum expanded metal mesh sandwiched between two panes to reduce heat buildup from sunlight; computer-controlled air movement motor controls maximize energy efficiencies; no chlorofluorocarbon-based refrigerants in air conditioning and no halon gases in fire suppression system; control systems, meter HVAC systems, water usage and energy performance of the building. Materials & Resources Space designed into loading dock area to collect and store recyclables; more than 75 percent of demolition and construction waste was recycled; a significant amount of recycled material was used in construction; a minimum of 20 percent of the building products used in the Central Library were manufactured within 500 miles of Seattle, thus helping the local economy and reducing impacts of transporting materials long distances. Indoor Environmental Quality Central Library will meet or exceed the standard American Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers 62-1999, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality; smoking won't be permitted in building; carbon dioxide will be monitored and will be no higher than outdoor levels by more than 530 parts per million; a construction indoor air quality plan devised to maintain high air quality during construction, protect absorptive materials from moisture, replace filtration media immediately prior to occupancy, and conduct a minimum two-week building flush-out with new filtration media at 100 percent outside air after construction ends and prior to occupancy; selection of carpet materials that emit low amounts of airborne contaminants; provide a monitoring system to automatically adjust for thermal comfort; maximize daylight and views from 90 percent of all regularly occupied spaces. Innovation & Design Process LEEDTM stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design and is the rating system used by the U.S. Green Building Council to determine the degree of green and sustainable design in a building project. A member of the architectural team is a LEEDTM accredited professional. The project has an acoustical engineer to recommend design elements to improve occupant comfort. The Library has also undertaken a public education component that will encompass a section on the Library's Web site, Central Library tours focusing on LEEDTM elements and signage pointing out sustainable features of the building. The project has also achieved an exemplary level of the use of recycled materials. The architects, contractors and The Seattle Public Library are pleased to report that the Central Library project has been awarded a silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. Videos on each topic are available on the Seattle Central Library website
CREDITS
Architect: OMA / LMN – A Joint Venture Engineer: Arup / Magnusson Klemencic Associates Principals: Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus (Partner in Charge) Project Architects: Meghan Corwin, Mark von Hof-Zogrotzki, Bjarke Ingels, Carol Patterson, Natasha Sandmeier Team: Keely Colcleugh, Rachel Doherty, Sarah Gibson, Laura Gilmore, Anna Little, John McMorrough, Kate Orff, Beat Schenk, Saskia Simon, Anna Sutor, Victoria Willocks, Dan Wood with Florence Clausel, Thomas Dubuisson, Chris van Duijn, Erez Ella, Achim Gergen, Eveline Jürgens, Antti Lassila, Hannes Peer, João Costa Ribeiro, Kristina Skoogh, Sybille Waeltli, Leonard Weil, Ali Arvanaghi Local Architect: LMN Architects Partner in charge: John Nesholm Project Directors: Robert Zimmer and Sam Miller Project Architects: Tim Pfeiffer, Steve DelFraino, Mary Anne Smith, Dave Matthews, Vern Cooley, Pragnesh Parikh Team: Chris Baxter, Jim Brown, Wayne Flood, Thomas Gerard, Mette Greenshields, Cassandra Hryniw, Roy Kim, Ed Kranick, Ken Loddeke, Howard Liu, Damien McBride, Howard Meeks, Byron Rice, Kathy Stallings, Page Swanberg
VISITS
1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle, WA 98104-1109, USA More info
OMA COLLECTION
The project material for Seattle Central Library is part of the OMA Collection. The Office for Metropolitan Architecture and AMO accommodate their archives and project material including detailed drawings, models, sketches and any related material under scientific conditions. The OMA Collection is based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. A restricted amount of scientific research is granted and researchers can receive direct access to the collection in Rotterdam or receive requested material. The OMA Collection will invoice made costs for research and material. |
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