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May. 20th, 2006 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katallisonFew events in life can be as unambiguously joyful as the opening of a great new library. For the last few years, Minneapolis has been laboring to replace its sad old down-at-heels 50s- vintage central library, and today, at long last, was the grand opening.
It's a beauty. I'm sitting here right now next to the fireplace (!) on the third floor, availing myself of the buildig-wide WiFi , with people surging all around me, and wishing I'd brought my camera so I could upload pictures. (Maybe later I'll take some…) I got all choked up and misty when, after the speeches were over and the ribbons were cut, and after ten minutes or so of inching forward jammed elbow to elbow with the vast slow-moving crowd, I finally got through the entrance and got my first look at the gorgeous four-story-high atrium, and saw and heard the library staff and volunteers lining the main hallway, leaning over the second and third and fourth floor overhangs, cheering and applauding us all as we stumbled forward, blinking, grinning, jaws agape.
The building is BIG and full of light and books and computers; everything is clean-lined, pale wood and brushed silver (the aesthetic inspiration could fancifully be said to be a birch wood in midwinter, very apropos for Minnesota); and there's a good coffeeshop on the ground floor. Fireplaces, wonderful views of the city, comfortable furniture, a huge collection almost all of which is out on the open shelves…
I can foresee that I'll be spending a lot of time here.
It's a beauty. I'm sitting here right now next to the fireplace (!) on the third floor, availing myself of the buildig-wide WiFi , with people surging all around me, and wishing I'd brought my camera so I could upload pictures. (Maybe later I'll take some…) I got all choked up and misty when, after the speeches were over and the ribbons were cut, and after ten minutes or so of inching forward jammed elbow to elbow with the vast slow-moving crowd, I finally got through the entrance and got my first look at the gorgeous four-story-high atrium, and saw and heard the library staff and volunteers lining the main hallway, leaning over the second and third and fourth floor overhangs, cheering and applauding us all as we stumbled forward, blinking, grinning, jaws agape.
The building is BIG and full of light and books and computers; everything is clean-lined, pale wood and brushed silver (the aesthetic inspiration could fancifully be said to be a birch wood in midwinter, very apropos for Minnesota); and there's a good coffeeshop on the ground floor. Fireplaces, wonderful views of the city, comfortable furniture, a huge collection almost all of which is out on the open shelves…
I can foresee that I'll be spending a lot of time here.