# Just look at these libraries **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 26, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785 "2008-12-26T22:31:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/21 "2008-12-28T09:15:52Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I assume you’re joking. If not, I give you [the brand new Seattle Public Library…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Central_Library#Additional_images) Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/22 "2008-12-28T09:40:28Z")
Some interesting trivia: the portraits on the ceilings at the Vatican and various of the national libraries were painted in scratch and sniff. (Michelangelo always worked in this genre- you really don’t want to get too close to The Final Judgment.) ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/23 "2008-12-28T10:21:30Z")
I’m partial to quiet, intimate reading rooms with comfy chairs, being able to put my feet up, fresh air, a sunny view for reading but without sun on the stacks, a fireplace in the winter, large tables upon which I can spread out my work, and wireless access. The University of Toronto’s Hart House Library is as good as it gets for me. What I don’t like are brutalist book warehouses that asusme that the reading areas should be like the interior of jail cells. Unfortunately, these cankers spread throught Canada in the 1970s – e.g. [Robarts Library](http://www.raisethehammer.org/images/brutalism_01.jpg) at the University of Toronto. Unfortunately, not only is the reader’s environment often forgotten, but often integration with the local environment is often forgotten [Glob of infected snot (Czech National Library)](http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007-3-7/library%20arial.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/24 "2008-12-28T10:35:15Z")
Forgot the links to the Hart House Library: [http://gallery.photo.net/photo/5974358-lg.jpg](http://gallery.photo.net/photo/5974358-lg.jpg) [![](http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~fritz/personal/fotos/albums/all/800x600/pict0371.jpg) ](http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~fritz/personal/fotos/albums/all/800x600/pict0371.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/25 "2008-12-28T16:46:07Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Unfortunately, not only is the reader’s environment often forgotten, but often integration with the local environment is often forgotten > [Glob of infected snot (Czech National Library)](http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007-3-7/library%20arial.jpg). What the _hell_? Did the architect have a stroke? Did everyone involved have a stroke? Seriously, what in god’s name were they going for beyond ‘melting poisonous mushroom from a lousy early 90’s video game?’ ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/26 "2008-12-28T16:53:26Z")
Environmental consciousness. Unfortunately, the architect’s understanding of environment was focused on energy systems, and in my opinion missed out the human/cultural/historical/aesthetic components. ---
**Author:** ![Alienhand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@Alienhand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alienhand)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/27 "2008-12-28T17:04:30Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Environmental consciousness. Unfortunately, the architect’s understanding of environment was focused on energy systems, and in my opinion missed out the human/cultural/historical/aesthetic components. Okay, but who the hell approved it? ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/28 "2008-12-28T17:36:59Z")
One of the most interesting new buildings I have visited is Warsaw University Library. Not only a stunning design, but the only one I know of that has a garden on its roof, which can be seen on this slide-show :- [http://picasaweb.google.com/illya.gk/WarsawLibrary#slideshow/4972135608422367250](http://picasaweb.google.com/illya.gk/WarsawLibrary#slideshow/4972135608422367250) ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/29 "2008-12-28T17:56:36Z")
> [@Alienhand](#): > > Okay, but who the hell approved it? A design competition [http://www.uia-architectes.org/texte/england/Prague2006/2-resultats.html](http://www.uia-architectes.org/texte/england/Prague2006/2-resultats.html) in which the head of the jury Eva Jiricna used to work with the winner of the competition Jan Kaplicky. There has been an uproar over it, from the Czech president Vaclav Klaus on down to Prague mayor Pavel Bém. Earlier this month (December 2008), the Prague Assembly put the project on the shelf. Kaplicky says he will wait for a change in government. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/30 "2008-12-28T20:19:36Z")
I love the exterior of the Biblioteca Alexandrina, the UNESCO financed current library of Alexandria. It looks [far m](http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/4700/10323331191alexandrina_model_light_300.jpg/alexandrina_model_light_300.jpg)ore [futuristic](http://www.crystalinks.com/libraryofalex.jpg)than [ancient](http://www.thecityreview.com/archnw2f.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/31 "2008-12-28T21:32:07Z")
Woo Thomas Fisher! 😃 (It really is that gorgeous in person. You have to take a shoebox-sized elevator to move around the stacks, but it’s so worth it.) Hart House is gorgeous, but the library itself is very small–it’s much better for cozying up to sleep or read in a comfy nook than actual research. The Reference Library at Yonge and Bloor is huge–and very airy and light, with glass elevators and water features. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/32 "2008-12-29T00:21:59Z")
I wish I could have seen [the library of Ephesus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Celsus_library_3.JPG) in its heyday. I was happy to see the law library at the University of Michigan in there. I never study there because there isn’t any wifi, but some of my friends do…because there isn’t any wifi. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/33 "2008-12-29T02:24:44Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Several of those look like something out of _What Dreams May Come_. Its sad that the internet (which, thanks to things like Google Books and Project Gutenberg, is the 21st Century version of the library) means that libraries such as those pictured will be less visited and the odds of any new ones that look so spectacular will not be built. A new major library has recently been build in [Alexandria](http://www.bibalex.org/English/gallery/index.htm). It looks pretty impressive, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785/34 "2008-12-29T03:04:04Z")
Another interesting bit of trivia, The Trinity College Dublin, Long Room was[ripped off in Star Wars Episode 2](http://www.irish-architecture.com/news/2002/000238.htm). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-look-at-these-libraries/478785.md?page=1)