Harold Washington Library Center (Chicago, Illinois) | 1991_construction, postmodern (architecture)

USA / Illinois / Chicago / Chicago, Illinois / South State Street, 400
 library, 1991_construction, postmodern (architecture)
The drive to build this library was led by the Union League Club of Chicago, a conservative private city club located a few blocks away. The insular, unfriendly, monolithic nature of the library can be construed to be a reflection of the insular, unfriendly and monolithic nature of private city clubs. It was designed in 1991 by Hammond, Beeby & Babka in the Postmodern style after the conversion of the former main branch into the Chicago Cultural Center. It evokes the Chicago skyscraper style of nearby Rookery, Auditorium and Monadnock buildings. The exterior features several gigantic acroteria designed by Kent Bloomer with owl figures by Raymond Kaskey at the roofline. At 756,000 square feet of space, it is regarded as the largest public library building in the world by the Guinness World Records authority.

The building contains 2,337 chairs for patrons a 450-seat meeting room, a 385-seat auditorium, 60 classrooms, a video theater, 70.85 miles/374,073 linear feet of shelving.

www.chipublib.org/branch/details/library/harold-washing...
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Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Washington_Library
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Coordinates:   41°52'34"N   87°37'41"W

Comments

  • this is the largest public library in the us
  • It is so hard to find a specific book here because this library is so big. I have to ask for help every time.
This article was last modified 3 years ago