I agree with Mr. Connolly (I think it was he) that the Yamasaki building is the exclamation point of the downtown "main street" It would be visually confusing to put anything at that end of the Mall that would detract from that.
That said, I am worried that with a name architect, we will end up with a monument to the architect's "vision" rather than a hard working building. We have signature buildings in Minneapolis and probably the NWL building is the most graceful. What we need from the new library is utility, not a statement of ego. For my own shopping list: I want accessibility for patrons whether they come on foot, by public transportation or by car. Green is nice, so leave room for bike racks and skateboarders, but the point of a library is to get people to come there and use the books. Don't get distracted from that for any worthwhile reason. I want floor space to have open shelving. Soaring two- three- or more-story atria and lobbies and whatnot are lovely but in this case all they will do is subtract from the amount of floorspace where we COULD have just that many more open shelves. Moreover, this is Minnesota not Italy or Southern California. Huge open areas are not comfortable here without having to spend a fortune on mechanicals. We have plenty of poorly designed buildings attesting to the fact that open space in Minnesota means headache-producing drafts in the winter. To experience huge space cooling problems in the summer, I hope you all visited the abortion that used to be grafted onto the front of Coffman Union of the MInneapolis campus of the U of M. I want NO hidden corners and crannies where some pervert can beat the meat in the hopes that I'll come around a stacks end and catch him at it. I want to be able to see children, not worry where they are or what they might be experiencing out of responsible adult view. (My own are now 18 and 22, so that is a reminiscence.) I want plenty of places where one can sit down and turn half a dozen pages of something without worrying about being accosted by drunks or other assorted creeps. Unobstructed views of the space will help that happen. the priorities should be (IMHO) 1) approach accessibility, 2) just as many linear feet of running open stacks as we can squeeze into the place (goal=60% more than current collection), 3) making the library a safe place to be, and 4) creating a building that is physically comfortable. I do get worried when we get name architects, because too few of them are able to resist the temptation build yet another monument to ego and ignore the utility that they were hired to produce. If a library building is not every-inch-usable, it's a failure in its function, I think. (Yes, you can have utility without looking like a warehouse, but then I think many warehouses are attractive too.) Emilie Quast SE Como and employee of U of MN Libraries _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
