Jane Jacobs

SEATTLE
CENTRAL
LIBRARY
Office for Metropolitan
Architecture (OMA) - Rem
Koolhaas
Daniel Sandoval
Erika Sáenz

HISTORY
Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate who
built libraries across theU.S. sponsored in
1906 the construction of
the Carnegie Library in Seattle neoclassical sty
le, on land at Fourth Avenue

Over the years it became necessary so that an
extension was built in 1960aninternational
modern style building of 5 floors, designed
by Bindon & Wright, replacing the old
library. Again the demand exceeded
the capacity of the library, which, coupled with
the scarcityof parking and seismic
risk determined in the late90s the need to build a
new library, which satisfies the requirements of
our time.

SEATTLE CENTRAL LIBRARY
The Seattle Central Library (inEnglish Seattle
Central Library) is the
headquarters of
the Public Library System in
Seattle (Washington, USA). The
current building, elevenstorey and 56 meters
above ground level, was
designedin 1999 by
the Office for
Metropolitan Architecture stud
y, led by Dutch
architect Rem Koolhaas. The
building was opened on May
23, 2004 and has a total area
of ​34,000 square meters which
canaccommodate approximately
1.45 million books and other
content. It is equippedwith
parking for 143 vehicles and
400 public access computers.

STRUCTURE

To implement these points, the Dutchstudy established five platforms,
five clusterswith specific equipment
for program and activities to develop each
of them. These platforms would
materialize in volumes on top of each other,leaving interstitial spaces between them
that would be devoted to reading,
work and rest. Stacked
volumes would randomly displaced from the
vertical.

STRUCTURE

Estructual design
of the SeattleCentral
Library was
awarded by the
American
Council of
Engineering
Companies (ACE
C its acronym
in English), which
awardedits
2005 "Platinum A
ward"
for structural
solutions employ...