I first set foot in Toyo Ito's Sendai Mediatheque on a visit to Japan more than 20 years ago. This earthquake-proof, sci-fi library, built around tubular, tree-trunk structural columns, is a feat of engineering and a beacon of ambitious programming for the community. As we entered the 21st century, all eyes were fixated on this civic alien creature as a harbinger of things to come.
Sendai Mediatheque ushered in a new era of library architecture around the world. As we spend endless hours on our mobile phones and Kindles, libraries have eagerly embraced an expanded role as a public good and anchor of civic life—and architecture is often the lynchpin to capturing repeat visitors when competition for their attention has never been greater. Below, I highlight four of America’s best designed libraries, and ask the architects behind them to offer some additional insight into their favorite shelving systems and books.
Seattle Central Library, by Rex
In 2005, I trekked to downtown Seattle to explore the Central Library designed by OMA's Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Ramus, the partner-in-charge. The diamond steel and glass facade defines a fortress-like hulking mass and a must-see architectural oddity. Before the word "immersive" spread through our cultural landscape like kudzu, Ramus, who has since founded Rex, deployed a number of strategies from hospitality and museum architecture to reinvigorate the library experience, prioritizing discovery and civility.
At the core is the book spiral, a multi-level ramp containing stacks of 800,000 books that encourages a meandering journey or targeted research enhanced by super-sized digits painted on the floor that shout out which section you are passing. The showy, illuminated neon lime escalators are both people movers and dramatic bread crumbs to encourage a trip to an upper floor. Meanwhile, the aptly named mixing chamber provides a customer service experience similar to the famed Apple Genius Bar: Interdisciplinary staff proactively engage visitors like “geniuses” provide technical support. In 2004, its opening year, more than two million people came through the library's doors. Since then, annual visitorship has hovered around 800,000, matching the population of Seattle.
Book Talk with Joshua Ramus of Rex
What is your favorite shelving system for books?
My favorite shelving system sadly never came into existence. During design of the Seattle Central Library, we collaborated with the late Maarten van Severen to create bookshelves that were hung instead of floor mounted, and featured the ability to raise or drop each horizontal shelf independently of any other using an electric drill. The design research didn't go completely to waste, as the system's extruded aluminum shelves and other features appeared in Maarten's beautiful Kast storage unit previously produced by Vitra.
Favorite coffee table book?
A book documenting the design, construction, and subsequent rehabilitation of Chiesa di Nostra Signora della Misericordia (Church of Our Lady of Mercy) completed in 1958 in the outskirts of Milan by Angelo Mangiarotti and Bruno Morassutti. It's one of my favorite buildings. Unabashedly modern and technologically innovative (its ill-fated translucent facade was composed of polystyrene sandwiched into glass), it is nonetheless resoundingly humanistic. I return to its lessons often.
Favorite book to give as a gift?
Le Petit Prince. Because everyone needs the occasional reminder to see an elephant swallowed by boa constrictor, not a hat.
Any trends in book presentation you would like to abolish or replicate?
With the prevalence of digital communication, I fear the appreciation for paper thickness, sheen, cover pliability, size/format, and ink smell is waning. So many recent books seem clumsy to me. I would love to "abolish" this downward trend in the art of book design.
Scottsdale’s Arabian Library by Richärd | Kennedy
Public libraries making a splash are equally at home in metropolises and suburban towns, where dedicated librarians lead the charge to commission spaces that foster reading, informal learning, and play.
Scottsdale, Arizona, once a mecca for Arabian horse breeding, is a desert city and home to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, a studio and home built in the 1940s that now serves as a foundation and educational compound. At first glance, the 2008 Arabian Library nearby could be mistaken for a monumental Richard Serra corten steel sculpture, just with sharp angles instead of torqued ellipses. The building’s weathered burnt sienna outer walls are an homage to the nearby slot canyons of the McDowell Mountains.
A passageway compresses your point of view to look skyward, wending to an interior courtyard in front of the 20,000-square-foot library. While the exterior plays with local context and topography, the interior is all business. Subtle retail design prevails, where merchandising the product (in this case, books to lend) is at the forefront of the bespoke stacks that showcase book covers on easy-to-see top shelves. Replicating fast food expediency, you can order a book online and pick it up at a drive-through window, and acknowledging the town’s dependence on cars, the library’s parking lot features charging stations for electric vehicles.
Book Talk with James Richärd of Richärd | Kennedy
What is your favorite shelving system for books?
I’ve always been fascinated by the notion of the library built of books, being a pure expression of structure as well as an elegantly practical solution. Dublin’s Trinity College Library is an example from antiquity where the shelving integrates as the supportive tissue of the building itself, and Mexico City’s Biblioteca Vasconcelos, a bold stroke in its way to think about the collection expressed as architectural form.
Favorite coffee table book?
One of the most intoxicating objects to have on your coffee table is Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Earth from Above. A striking collection of beautiful and sometimes shocking imagery that quietly conveys both the insignificance of our species yet our outsized weight on the globe.
Favorite book to give as a gift?
Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, well, duh...
Any trends in book presentation you would like to abolish or replicate?
Abolish dust covers…
North Boulder Library by WORKac
In the neighboring state of Denver, WORKac’s North Boulder (Nobo) Library is also set against a nearby mountain range. In this instance, the architects modeled sloping double-height, light-filled spaces invoking whimsy and accessibility. The building is sited to encourage outdoor activities and visitation from three entrances. The main pathway doubles as a musical instrument created by the public art collective Daily tous les jours. The intervention transforms a mundane sidewalk into a keyboard, emitting sounds and synths that layer upon each other with additional visitors.
Inside, WORKac efficiently zones different areas by color—marking out the classroom, maker space, and computer lab. Multiple large plate glass windows direct attention to vistas worthy of Boulder’s reputation as a “city within a park.” In a final nod to recreation, a tubular marigold slide is attached to the building like a gigantic caterpillar, or perhaps a sophisticated hat tip to Carsten Höller’s 2015 slide installation at the Hayward Gallery, providing a speedy (and very popular) exit.
Book Talk with Amale Andraos of WORKac
What is your favorite shelving system for books?
My favorite shelving system is definitely the Rakks system. I love how it’s practically invisible, allowing the books themselves to be the focal point while also making it seem like they’re floating in space.
Favorite coffee table book?
I recently bought Wes Anderson: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work by Ian Nathan for my partner Dan [Wood, the cofounder of WORKac]. The book is filled with great stills from Anderson's films that spark conversations as we re-watch with our kids, Ayah and Kamil. The personal connections also make it special: Dan's vintage orange 1967 Porsche was used in The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom was filmed in Rhode Island, near where we have just built a new house for ourselves.
Favorite book to give as a gift?
101 Thai Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die by Jet Tila and Tad Weyland Fukumoto. Dan has been cooking a lot of Thai food lately. It’s perfect for anyone interested in exploring Thai cuisine!
Any trends in book presentation you would like to abolish or replicate?
In our office library, we seem to mostly organize books by scale and topic. The combination creates an interesting visual texture while still being a practical finding system.
Eastham Public Library by Oudens Ello Architecture
Oudens Ello Architecture is a firm with an outsize portfolio of libraries, primarily located in its home state of Massachusetts. While they keep things local, their strategies are sophisticated and their solutions ripe for emulation. A standout is the charming Eastham Public Library compound, consisting of the original cedar shingled one-room library built in 1897 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Oudens Ello crafted a subtle contemporary extension in which the mass of the building is below grade, sloping towards a pond. The pastoral location informs the design but does not overwhelm it. Shingles clad the two additional forms; the first, an auditorium, flanks the original house, and the larger V-shaped annex sits behind overlooking Depot Pond.
Maple, pine, and bluestone floors provide warmth, as do the exposed wooden beams in the airy library overlooking the treetops with the waterfront just beyond. Other details, such as curved bookshelves dotting the children's space, comfy armchairs next to the double-height windows, and an indoor birding station (with binoculars and a field guide to boot) create a sense of domesticity in this 17,000-square-foot addition. This Cape Cod village of 5,000 people swells to 25,000 in the summer. The Eastham Public Library's clicker count was at nearly 50,000 visitors in 2022.
The proof is in the pudding: No longer stuffy or stodgy, libraries have evolved into third spaces that meet the moment—to retreat from the bustle and into the everlasting and enduring printed matter: books.
Book Talk with Matthew Oudens of Oudens Ello Architecture
What is your favorite shelving system for books?
I don’t have a single favorite shelving system, but I do appreciate how bookshelves can shape space, and there’s something warm and inviting about a room lined with books. For practicality, we often go with welded steel frame library shelving, which is durable and flexible. To make it feel a bit more integrated with the room finishes, we often clad with wood panels. For a truly integrated approach, custom wood shelving is a great option—though it can get pricey. I’m also a fan of Rakks for wall-mounted shelving. It’s clean, contemporary, and simple.
Favorite coffee table book?
I’d have to go with Le Corbusier Le Grande. It’s not only a beautifully detailed monograph, but it’s also so massive (it’s a 20-pound monster of a book) that it doesn’t fit on my bookshelves!
Favorite book to give as a gift?
That’s hard because it depends on the person, but The Library Book by Susan Orlean is a great option. It’s an engaging, well-written look at the mystery of the largest library fire in U.S. history, and it highlights the important role libraries play in our lives. For other architects, I like giving books on lesser-known architects that I admire, like Jože Plečnik—a Slovenian modernist whose work deserves more attention. And cookbooks are also a fun choice—Yotam Ottolenghi’s Ottolenghi Simple is a favorite of mine.
Any trends in book presentation you would like to abolish or replicate?
I’d get rid of slat wall displays on shelving end panels (and those Zoom backgrounds with books sorted by color). My favorite library book display is a “staff picks” shelf—highlighting a diverse range of books that aren’t just the latest or most popular.
