"Calgary's New Central Library is an example of the best practices in modern monument making"
Why can't all public libraries be as warm and welcoming as Snøhetta and Dialog's New Central Library for Calgary, asks Aaron Betsky in this Opinion column.
You walk in under a curving canopy of wood, slide into lozenge-shaped space where stacks and tables surrounded by reading people of all ages and sorts radiate away from you, and find yourself drawn up into the centre of vortex, an eye to the sky that leads you up along a grand stair, past level after level of more lounging and learning, peering at screens and napping, browsing and concentrating. This is the New Central Library (NCL) in downtown Calgary.
It is remarkable how, all around the world, libraries have become the main focus of civic activity. While they were always places that acted as access points to knowledge, they have in recent years turned into social centres, community halls, theatres, museums, and even a species of indoor park (this last function mainly of use to the homeless and socially disadvantaged), all rolled into one. They have also become the most active and active structure in many communities, the one public building that defines and serves neighbourhoods or whole cities without charging you for a cup of coffee or waiting until you are sick.
One of the most beautiful versions of these new community centres that I have seen in recent years
Libraries, in other words, are what remains of the notion of a civic monument: a structure that embodies and fixes in place the aspirations of a community t...
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