Seattle was founded in 1852. It is a port city. Its main industries, in addition to trade and exporting, are lumber, fishing, and aircraft. Seattle is popular with outdoor enthusiasts because of its proximity to two major mountains ranges, the Cascades and Olympics, and its access to the Pacific Coast. Within one hour, it is possible to be in the state capital, in farmland, in the mountains, or on a ferry to the San Juan Islands.

Seattle was named the Most Educated city in 2006; it ranked #6 among the 2006 top-ten arts destinations in the U.S; was labeled the ‘Most Unwired City’ for access to wireless Internet connections in 2005, and named the #3 Best Walking City for its walker-friendly environment.

 

Christened “The Emerald City”, Seattle is one of the most livable cities in the world. The greater Seattle area is home to 2.8 million people. Microsoft, Nordstrom and Starbucks are based here. Seattle is also known as the birthplace of the crazes for grunge rock and espresso coffee. This area is the home of baseball’s Edgar Martinez, glass art’s Dale Chihuly, musicians Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Queensryche, Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart and Kenny G., software giant Bill Gates, maestro Gerard Schwartz, actor Tom Skerritt, writers Ann Rule, Robert Fulghum, and Tom Robbins.

 

 

I was in Seattle from april 8th until april 13th. They were the best and most unforgettable days of the whole program. I went there with the best group ever: Saviya, Habib, Majeed and Muawia.

 

 

 

 

Seattle Public Library

          

Seattle voters in 1998 approved the largest library bond issue then ever submitted in the United States. The landmark “Libraries for All” bond measure, which proposed a $196.4 million makeover of the Library system, garnered an unprecedented 69 percent approval rate at the polls. The massive measure will double the square footage in Seattle’s 22 libraries, including the building of new branches, plus also produce a new $169.2 million Central Library (including $10 million for the Temporary Central Library) to replace its worn-out 1960 predecessor.

 

Twenty-nine major national, international and local firms sought the opportunity to design the new structure. The Library Board’s architectural choice for the project was as bold as “Libraries for All” itself. The surprise winner was Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, in partnership with the Seattle firm of LMN Architects. The iconoclastic Dutch architect had no major buildings built in America when the Library Board selected him over two other finalists, but the board’s choice seemed insightful a year later when Koolhaas was awarded architecture’s highest international honor, the Pritzker Prize.

 

His 11-floor, 362,987-square-foot library, a dazzling avant-garde symphony of glass and form, has many innovative features, including:

• A “Books Spiral” that displays the entire nonfiction collection in a continuous run;
• A towering “living room” along Fifth Avenue that reaches 50 feet in height;
• A distinctive diamond-shaped exterior skin of glass and steel.

The new Central Library’s unorthodox shape, unlike any other building in Seattle, is the result of its use of five platform areas to reflect different aspects of the library’s program; its form indeed follows its function. It includes a 275-seat auditorium and parking for 143 vehicles. The Library for more than two years provided services in a temporary 130,000-square-foot library in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center at 800 Pike St., while the new Central Library was being built.

 

The new Central Library opened May 23, 2004, and immediately prompted international interest.

 

“Libraries for All” marches on. The new NewHolly Branch opened in 1999, the first neighborhood project completed through the building program. Wallingford followed in 2000, Delridge in 2002, Capitol Hill in 2003. Seven branches opened in 2004 and other branches will open in steady succession through 2007.

 

The Seattle Public Library is being remade on a scale unmatched by any other public library system in the country in order to meet the changed demands of the 21st century.