The Central Library Implementation Committee selected Cesar Pelli and Associates to design the new Central Library.  Mr. Pelli designed the Norwest Center here in Minneapolis.  He also designed Ronald Regan Airport, the World Financial Center (both which have recently been in the news due to the World Trade Center bombing), as well as the Petronus Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which is the world's tallest building.  I would encourage people to take a minute to look at some of this firm's work at: 
 
 
 
A couple of comments on one post regarding this process. 
 
>Kevin Trainor wrote:

>I agree that we should be looking at the proposed
>designs and not just the architects -- it seems downright
>dumb to pick an architect without looking at what they
>have in mind to have built. 
 
The reason that we didn't do a design competition is that typically you don't get a very well designed building when you do them.  You will get a nice looking exterior but you don't necessarily get a functional building. There are a lot of challenges with this building -- four "fronts," the desire for a public space inside as well as outside, possible inclusion of a planetarium, coordination with the housing across the street, the need to organize functions internally, -- that a design competition would not have resulted in a good overall design both internally and externally
 

Carol Becker
Longfellow

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