The Salt Lake City Main Public Library occupies a city block across from city hall. The building consists of a five story, triangular-shaped structure housing the stacks and readers’ facilities, an adjacent rectangular administration wing and a glass-enclosed “urban room, ” all contained by a crescent-shaped wall. The wall descends toward the piazza, providing a sweeping external staircase that leads visitors from the piazza to a rooftop garden overlooking the surrounding Wasatch Mountains. The urban room opens into the piazza, which is lined within the wall with shops, restaurants, meeting rooms and an auditorium.
Within the crescent, reading galleries occupy the four levels above the retail areas and are connected by bridges to the main library block. The children’s library, on the lowest level, spills outdoors into an amphitheater and a children’s garden. Story rooms designed as part of the art program cluster around.
A south-facing, five-story double-glazed ‘lens’ opens the entire library towards the mountain view while providing shade or trapping the sun’s heat, as appropriate to each season.
Client: Salt Lake City Library
Associate Architects: VCBO Architects
Total Area: 225,000 sq.ft. (20,902 sq.m)
Cost: US $78 million
Status: Completed 2003
