Editing Seattle Central Library (section)

== Response ==
[[File:Seattle Central Library 03.jpg|thumb|An overhead view of one floor of the library]]
Use of the building is more than double the predicted volume.<ref>{{citation|title=A moment with ... Joshua Prince-Ramus/Architect|last=Marshall|first=John|newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|date=September 2008|url=http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/378814_moment12.html}}</ref> In the library's first year, 2.3 million people came to visit the library; roughly 30% were from outside Seattle. The library  generated $16 million in new economic activity for its surrounding area in its first year.<ref>{{citation|last=Kenney|first=Brian|url=http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA633326.html|title=After Seattle|journal=Library Journal|date=August 15, 2005|access-date=2006-05-25|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060221215111/http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA633326.html|archive-date=February 21, 2006}}</ref>
The opinion of architectural critics and the general public has been mixed.  Paul Goldberger, writing in ''[[The New Yorker]],'' declared the Seattle Central Library "the most important new library to be built in a generation, and the most exhilarating."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Goldberger |first=Paul |magazine=The New Yorker |title=High-Tech Bibliophilia |url=http://www.newyorker.com/critics/skyline/?040524crsk_skyline |date=May 17, 2004 |access-date=May 25, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060611122300/https://www.newyorker.com/critics/skyline/?040524crsk_skyline |archive-date=Jun 11, 2006}}</ref> The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Washington awarded the Library its Platinum Award for innovation and engineering in its "structural solutions". The library also received a 2005 national AIA Honor Award for Architecture.<ref>{{citation|last=Smith|first=Andy|url=http://blog.aia.org/favorites/2007/02/108_seattle_public_library_200.html|title=America's Favorite Architecture: Seattle Public Library|publisher=American Institute of Architects|format=AIA blog|date=February 6, 2007|access-date=2013-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926215552/http://blog.aia.org/favorites/2007/02/108_seattle_public_library_200.html |archive-date=2013-09-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Lawrence Cheek, the [[Architecture criticism|architecture critic]] for the ''[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]]'',   revisited the building in 2007 and found it "confusing, impersonal, uncomfortable, oppressive" on the whole, with various features "decidedly unpleasant," "relentlessly monotonous," "badly designed and cheesily detailed," "profoundly dreary and depressing," and "cheaply finished or dysfunctional," concluding that his earlier praise for the building was a "mistake."<ref>{{cite web|last=Cheek |first=Lawrence |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/309029_architecture27.html?source=mypi |title=On Architecture: How the new Central Library really stacks up |newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=2007-03-26 |access-date=2012-08-15}}</ref>

The library was roundly condemned by the [[Project for Public Spaces]], which noted "if the library were a true 'community hub,' its most active areas would connect directly to the street, spinning off activity in every direction. That is where Koolhaas's library, sealed away from the sidewalks and streets around it, fails completely." It went on to note "critics have cast it as a masterpiece of public space design. As if blinded by the architect's knack for flash and publicity, they cannot locate, or perhaps refuse to acknowledge, the faults in his creation."<ref>{{citation|title=Mixing with the Kool Crowd: Have architecture critics forgotten how to judge public spaces?|last=Fried|first=Benjamin|journal=Making Places Newsletter|date=July 2004|url=http://www.pps.org/reference/mixing-with-the-kool-crowd/}}</ref>

The confusing layout of the library's structure was also addressed in a book by architect [[Ruth Conroy Dalton]] and cognitive scientist Christoph Hölscher, called ''Take One Building: Interdisciplinary Research Perspectives of the Seattle Central Library''.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Dalton |first1=Ruth Conroy |last2=Hölscher |first2=Christoph |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1065322205|title=Take one building : interdisciplinary research perspectives of the Seattle Central Library|date=8 June 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-61658-5|oclc=1065322205}}</ref> Researchers examined it as a model case for investigating the interplay between the building's complexity and individual differences in wayfinding ability.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kuliga|first1=Saskia F.|last2=Nelligan|first2=Benjamin|last3=Dalton|first3=Ruth C.|last4=Marchette|first4=Steven|last5=Shelton|first5=Amy L.|last6=Carlson|first6=Laura|last7=Hölscher|first7=Christoph|date=2019-04-12|title=Exploring Individual Differences and Building Complexity in Wayfinding: The Case of the Seattle Central Library|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013916519836149|journal=Environment and Behavior|volume=51|issue=5|pages=622–665|doi=10.1177/0013916519836149|bibcode=2019EnvBe..51..622K |s2cid=150719300 |issn=0013-9165}}</ref>