Opened in 2004, Seattle's flagship library was designed by Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, working with LMN Architects. It stands on the same downtown block as the two libraries that came before it.
The 11-story building looks like a stack of separate floating platforms, each shifted to suit its use, wrapped in a net of steel over a skin of glass. Inside, the "Books Spiral" holds the nonfiction collection on one continuous ramp, so the shelves follow the Dewey Decimal System without breaking across floors. Other levels are bold in color, including a floor painted in 13 shades of red.
More than two million people visited in its first year, and in 2007 it was voted among Americans' 150 favorite buildings. Architecture tours have been offered since it opened.
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