The Black Diamond, the Royal Danish Library extension on Slotsholmen, was designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen, chosen in 1993 from 178 entrants. Construction ran from 1995 to 1999 at a cost of 465 million Danish kroner, and it opened to the public on September 15, 1999. The article calls the style neomodern.
The reinforced concrete building has seven floors and 20,733 square meters of floor area. About 2,500 square meters of polished black granite clads it, mined in Zimbabwe and cut and polished in Italy. A toplit atrium forms the center.
It holds the 600-seat Queen's Hall, six reading rooms with 474 seats and a 210 square meter fresco by Per Kirkeby.
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