What's a town to do when Wal-Mart just picks up an leaves?How about turning the space into a library!This is exactly what the town of McAllen, Texas did, transforming 124,500 square feet (think 2 1/2 football fields) into the largest single-story library in the US.With the help of Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. the space was brought back to life. Gone are the guns and bargains; they have been replaced with books and computers.The International Interior Design Association just selected the Library as the winner of their 2012 Library Interior Design Competition.In the first month since the library opened new...
Cooking up the future in the ‘Library Test Kitchen’
The Neo-Carrel“What if you thought seriously about the library as a laboratory, as a place where people do things, where they make things?”says Jeffrey Schnapp. The class is called "The Library Test Kitchen." It is taught by Schnapp and offered through the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University. During the class "ideas flew like cream pies at a food fight" and before the semester was out some of the ideas were developed into student projects. Pictured above is the Neo-Carrel, a "study chair with a raised platform in front that doubles as a laptop stand and a comfortable...
The ‘Little Library’ in the Big Picture
OK everyone, put on your long read hat and settle in. Shannon Mattern has a must read essay on the Design Observer blog Places titled Marginalia: Little Libraries in the Urban Margins.In it she looks at the recent rise of the mini, pop-up, guerrilla and ad-hoc library and tries "to figure out where they’re coming from, how they relate to existing institutions that perform similar roles, and what impact they’re having on their communities.""Nowadays we have libraries in phone booths and mailboxes, in public parks and train stations, in vacant storefronts and parking lots" says MatternMattern also covers the various mobile...
Edinburgh’s Phantom Book Artist Takes a Detour
“Remember Edinburgh’s Mystery Sculptor? She has sent me 17 small paintings for my birthday, each one from a Rebus title.” - Author and subject of many of the pieces, Ian Rankin on Twitter.It has been almost a year since a slew of Rankin-themed book art pieces began popping up at various literary destinations around Edinburgh. The story received worldwide attention yet the artist continues to remain a mystery.Now this "Banksy of the Book Art World" takes a slight turn. Instead of a book art piece being left around town the artist changes direction and sends Rankin a birthday present of...
A Book Cover for an Eyesore
What else would you cover an electrical transformer that sits in front of the Library Place apartments, and is adjacent to the Everett Public Library, then with a book sculpture?It's called the "Book Stack" and it stands 8-feet-tall and 12-feet-wide. It is composed of fiberglass and comprised of seven books that were "chosen to acknowledge themes for urban renewal" says developer Craig Skotdal. Titles included are: A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and Leaves...