Comments

1
I love it! Goes beautifully with these skies, this rain, those lines.
2
Je suis triste que tu as ces concepts contre toute le monde.
3
Is this a real post? Are you on painkillers? Am I the only one who finds Mudede incoherent? Is this my last question?
4
Stranger, give this man some work to do. Please! Something to occupy his time.
5
thank you for elaborating and sharing your point. nearly all government, publicly funded buildings in the last ~15 years feature this in your face, lavish, even opulent (modern opulent, if there is such a thing. post-modern modern i guess) most trendy architecture possible. Look at any government building in your city- compare it to any private building, and the opulence is remarkable.

Are we trying to make up for social ills? Look at the downtown library- a huge part of it's function is bathroom and hygiene stations for the needy, crammed into small, well lit spaces.

So what you are saying here is not about the building itself, but the fact that we have an architectural indulgence in our public buildings that is not extended to other parts of society. I think that's the same as it is everywhere, rich country or por, past or present. Architecture and monuments always take precedence to the unsolvable problems of social class.
6
Please stop
7
I like City Hall. (maybe because I got gay-married there?)
8

Maybe it goes deeper than that.

What are libraries any more?

Newer ones don't store books...why bother? You can go on a computer and read, or order a book from the central warehouse and have it delivered.

Why use all this space storing books that will only be used once a year by one person. Space that is on valuable high rent land!

What the library has become is a self serve enclosed information kiosk. It has meeting rooms. It has atriums where people can talk out loud. It has play areas where kids can scream. Yet, in order to justify it's existence it has to "symbolize" a Library. In order for people to pay for such a fun place, it has to have Purpose.

Aren't we all Libraries. Aren't we doing all this Old Stuff to justify our existence in the face of the 20th century people, but what we really are going is 21st century activities?

We work at Microsoft and Boeing, to make money, so we can come home and use Facebook and YouTube.

9
@8 - great points. Let's do this in public. In libraries. At least we can be alone, together.

[Some people still read books].
10
@8 Seriously, when was the last time you where in a library? Cause is you think your local branch is nothing more than an information kiosk, you need to drop in for a while and see what's going on. If I remember correctly, Kent has a excellent branch.
11
I think the building looks fine. It's no EMP I guess.
12
The more photos you post of this building the more I like it.
13
Charles, would you mind describing exactly what physical characteristics of this building combine to create the meaning you are assigning it? All I see is a structural composition of line, plane, color, and texture capturing a popular PNW architectural aesthetic. You are arguing, at least in part, that this aesthetic is ugly because of the ideas it embodies, which I think is fair (art/architecture/design is not a neutral container free of meaning or context), but if you could provide some visual analysis elucidating this connection, you might be able to make a more convincing argument.
14
Charles, get your ass on a DRB and maybe you can stop the madness!
15
@13 But that would require him to actually think instead of vomit out philosophical references.
16
This building is Gorgeous. There is no accounting for good taste, and you sir, have bad, really bad, really really bad no good taste.
17
I like City Hall. Although, like the downtown library, it's not very practical. Does anyone actually walk up those endless stairs in front, or do they all use the side entrances?

The downtown library is a bigger shame to me though. It reminds me of NYU's ginormous library; the ginormous library that, even just ten years ago, was running out of space in the stacks because almost all of the actual real estate was taken up by the building's ginormous atrium.
18
Looks perfect for whatever ghetto would have Mudede.
19
@10 SRoTU actually endorses (?) the Covington branch ("Check out the new Covington Library (KCLS) some time."), which does have much hotter librarians (and less homeless patrons) than the Kent Regional branch; both facilities have had their renovations.
20
#10

The last time I was in a library was when I was taking tutoring lessons in Spanish. I met my tutor in the Kent Central Library and we did our lessons on the main table area. We spoke in conversational voices and no one said anything about it.

Also I normally go weekly to the Covington branch ( a fantastic and beautiful library with a "Great Room" for reading and studying -- but which does not ban talk -- to read scientific journals. But I haven't been there for a while.

By information kiosk, I mean a place to go and interactively search for information and also t participate in information activities like tutoring. It does have books. But I think more people space would be more useful than just stacks since, again, you can request those online.
21
@20 Oh, in that case yeah, I mostly agree with you.
22
I just get a knee jerk reaction when I thinking someone is veering into the "I have the internet so what good are libraries" argument.
23
I think you should move.
24
Funny troll, that Charles.
25
it's getting tiresome charles.

"You will not a find a position that's kind to this building. . . "
- all 3 pictures you posted (albeit poorly taken, poorly composed pictures) show the building to be fairly nice to a little extravagant and none are un-kind to the building. and there is one position that is über-kind to the building:: the inside, filled with people creating community and enjoying their cities resources. ultra-fail on your part for not noticing it, not participating in it and de-facto denigrating it.

"And the ugliness of the intention is expressed by the ugliness and messiness [of charles' twisted, twisted philosophical/political beliefs that make him the better human in all situations even those that contradict his earlier positions.]"

tl;dr = fuck off already, charles.
26
Overhead powerlines are a blight upon the all landscapes. There is no beauty here with their ugly intrusion. There must be a better way.....
27
@5 great points.

when i look at the library, i sometimes envision that they had planted taller, leafier trees which would eventually envelope the main floor. i see it in the future as a sea of green leaves, undulating in the wind, while the vaulted glass portion rises out of it like a wave. at least that engages my eye more. however, nothing can save that awful boat/bird/blimp/whimsical paperweight of a sculpture.
28
Agreed. Please stop. Write about THE INSIDE OF THE LIBRARY!!
You sound like a dipstick. A dipstick with FirstWorldProblems.
29
All it needs is to be painted a better color and it would look fine.
30
Lord, another one of these posts? Building's fine. It serves the community well. If it's a slow news week, find something more creative to share than this.

But I guess being deliberately contrarian gives Mudede a stiffy.

Please wait...

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