ABSTRACT

The impetus behind the research presented in this chapter was an initial observation that the Seattle Central Library is a building of paradoxes. It appears to occupy a Schrödinger’s cat-like state of architectural superimposition: just as Schrödinger’s cat may be held to be simultaneously both alive and dead, the Seattle Central Library occupies a state betwixt and between architecturally iconic and revered and, at the same time, deeply flawed and problematic. Clearly, as an architectural scholar and researcher encountering such a phenomenon, it is necessary to ask two questions. First, how can a building be both outstanding and defective? And second, and perhaps most importantly, is it possible to find the causes of this incongruity?