Seattle Public Library - Central Library

The Seattle Central Library wears a jagged skin of glass and steel that leans precariously over the sidewalk. Rem Koolhaas designed this eleven-story grid to replace a claustrophobic concrete predecessor, wrapping the structure in a diamond-patterned curtain wall that captures the gray Puget Sound light. During construction in two thousand four, staff and patrons argued over everything from the neon yellow escalators to the unconventional book spiral. One archivist famously fought to keep the library’s collection organized by the Dewey Decimal System.