The John Spoor Broome Library showcases simplicity by Foster in California
The John Spoor Broome Library is a 137,000 sq ft facility on the California State University Channel Islands campus. Designed by Lord Norman Foster and completed in 2008, the Broome Library is an integration of an existing structure—Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival architecture built in the 1950s—with clean lines and the open space of glass, metal, and concrete. Foster and his firm are renowned for the design of many projects including the Beijing Airport, the Hearst Tower, and the Millennium Bridge.
The new library, with its translucent glass ceiling that provides natural lighting for much of the building and its outdoor reflecting pool, houses 75,000 bound volumes, and more than 180,000 electronic books along with CDs, DVDs, and VHS; 32,000 digital images of art history, biology, environmental science; and current and historic campus photographs. The facility has the capacity of 250,000 to 300,000 bound volumes and can accommodate more than 1,800 users at a time.
|
