HistoryLink Tours

Our tour starts at the Seattle Public Library’s Central Library. The Seattle Public Library was established in 1869 and its central branch has been housed in several buildings, on several sites, since that time. The current site—here between Fourth and Fifth Avenues and Madison and Spring Streets—became the Central Library’s permanent locale with the purchase of this block by the City of Seattle in 1902. Since then, there have been three library structures, each very different from the one before. The first was a massive Classical Revival Style building financed by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) and designed by German-born, Chicago-based architect, Peter J. Weber (1863-1923), that opened in 1906. A 7.1-magnitude earthquake in 1949 precipitated a need to upgrade and repair the building, so in 1956 Seattle voters approved a bond measure to replace the library with a new, modern building. This new library, built in the International Style, was designed by Leonard Bindon (1899-1980) and John L. Wright (1916-2015) in association with the firm of Decker, Christiansen & Kitchin and opened in 1960. The Bindon and Wright building persevered for more than three decades, and then, in 1993, a facility assessment concluded that the Central Library’s space inadequacies were severe enough that a new location or facility should be considered.

Seattle voters approved a $196.4 million “Libraries for All” bond issue in 1998 which provided funding for a new central library and several new neighborhood library branches. That brings us to the current Central Library. This building was designed by Dutch and American architects, Rem Koolhaas (b. 1944) and Joshua Prince-Ramus (b. 1969) of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), in partnership with the Seattle firm of LMN Architects. It opened to the public in 2004. Noted for its unconventional design, the building is covered in glass and a honeycomb pattern of steel-encased, foot-thick copper tubes that allow for light throughout while providing structural support. The building’s design won several awards, including the 2005 American Institute of Architects’ Honor Award for Architecture.

That 1998 “Libraries for All” bond measure included a 1% for Art funding component that resulted in many new artworks being placed in the Central Library and several library neighborhood branches. Additionally, the Seattle Arts Commission (now the Office of Arts & Culture) created the “Library Unbound” program in March 2003 that solicited artists to create works for the new Central Library building through a nationwide call. Two hundred and sixty-eight artists responded and that group was narrowed to three awardees. The artists who were selected participated in an artist’s residency at the Temporary Central Library, located a few blocks north of the Central Library site, to familiarize themselves with the library’s operations and collections. The proposals of artists Mandy Greer and Lynne Yamamoto, along with George Legrady, were ultimately chosen. A separate component to the art program solicited internationally recognized artists, including Ann Hamilton, to create additional site-responsive works. We will learn more about these works during the tour of this site.

We’ll visit with five works in this building, starting at the top and working our way down.

Take the elevator to Level 10. When you exit the elevator, turn to your right and walk around the corner to the right. Follow the path straight to its end and then look back towards a large black wall. Here, we find the first work on our tour, Of Memory by Lynne Yamamoto.