It was a beautiful day. In truth, every day has been beautiful since the day I arrived, so I’m really beginning to wonder about all these dire warnings about rain. But I digress.
I had an errand to run downtown, so while I was there I decided to take a tour of the main branch of the public library. I have to admit that I was predisposed to love this library. It’s a rare library that I don’t love. But this one, I’ve got to say, is exceptionally amazing. Just approaching the building is a visual treat.
[Image credit: jamesewingphotography.com]
And then when you go inside, you’re almost overwhelmed with this place’s personality. It’s all about being unique and quirky and inviting. I got a map at the front desk, hopped on the lemon yellow escalator and took the self-guided tour. What a delight.
On the main floor, the coolest thing is just that, the floor. An artist named Ann Hamilton turned it into a floor of letters. All across it are quotes from books that can be found in the collection, in a variety of languages and writing styles. For some reason it’s in reverse, which just makes it more challenging and fun.
And they’ve got this automated book return that is fascinating to watch. Think of the package sorter conveyor belts from the movie The Polar Express. They have 400 computers for public use, and it seemed like the majority of them were being used, and yet people were being respectfully quiet. And the nonfiction collection spirals gently up 4 floors, in continual Dewey decimal order, with the numbers written in the carpet.
When you go to the conference room floor, you are plunged into this insane red world. Red floors, red walls, red ceilings, red doors. You almost feel as if you have been shrunk down and injected into someone’s bloodstream, a la Fantastic Voyage. They say the actual meeting rooms are a calm pastel color, but I was afraid to peek into any of them for fear there was a meeting in progress.
I know this isn’t the best picture, but my camera had a hard time understanding all this red. So did I.
The tenth floor provides stunning views, but you may want to give it a miss if you have issues with altitude, because holy crap, it’s a dizzying height! I’m fairly certain that this is the first time my heart has hit my throat in a library. I loved it. Check out more amazing photos of this library on their website here.
Right near this ultramodern library is this magnificent old church that I’ll have to explore one of these days. I felt like I stepped out of the year 2100 and was looking at ancient Rome. But somehow, in this city of extremes, it works.
Feeling supremely happy that the library and that church exist together in the world, even if I don’t have the opportunity to visit much, I went and paid an obscene amount for parking, and then I drove over to the University of Washington Botanic Gardens, where the parking is blessedly free. I could tell that I’d want to linger there for a long, long time.
Once again, as so often happens to me in this city, I was plunged into another world. As with Carkeek and Discovery Parks, I was so surrounded by nature it was hard to believe that there was a bustling city all around me. The delightful difference is that while those parks are wonderfully wild, this one is magnificently manicured.
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