The Seattle Public Library is the first in a new series here about libraries in the United States. Twenty-nine major national, international and local firms sought the opportunity to design the new Seattle Library. The surprise winner was Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, in partnership with the Seattle firm of LMN Architects. The iconoclastic Dutch architect had no major buildings built in America when the Library Board selected him. His 11-floor, 362,987-square-foot library, a dazzling avant-garde symphony of glass and form, has many innovative features, including: A "Books Spiral" that displays the entire nonfiction collection in a continuous run; A towering "living room" along Fifth Avenue that reaches 50 feet in height; A distinctive diamond-shaped exterior skin of glass and steel. The new Central Library opened May 23, 2004, and immediately prompted international interest.
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