ABSTRACT
Central municipal and regional libraries in cities are the largest and most complex, presenting unique challenges and opportunities for design. Urban sites are often tightly constrained, resulting in multistory layouts that require careful consideration in planning to provide critical functional adjacencies, visual connectivity, and access. Open collections and well-integrated activity areas facilitate direct public access to library materials, breaking down the traditional hierarchical relationship between books, readers, and library services. Bellevue Regional Library was planned and designed as a centerpiece of new civic development for a large and rapidly growing suburban municipality on the east side of the Seattle metropolitan area. Phoenix Burton Barr Central Library is the flagship facility of a large municipal library system, based in a major urban center of the desert southwest. Seattle Central Library is the main library and central administrative headquarters for the Seattle Public Library system.
