library

Sometimes we don't notice the architecture of a building because we are more interested in the contents. We focus on the aisles of food in a grocery store, or on the screen in a movie theater. Here in a central Texas library, I usually focus on the aisles of books, or on my work at a table. Yet this is a cheerful spot, with a clean, modern feel, the pale colors easy on the eye, and I sometimes gaze upward. The ceiling is high, and daylight flows in through square, set-back windows in tidy rows above the shelves. The ceiling is interesting with suspended curved rectangles of thin material - like a faux plywood - attached to a wood brace. Perhaps these panels are to help with insulation - of temperature, and sound as well. But it has the feel of the construction for a sailing ship, as though we were in a bright, spacious hold in progress, or the belly of a gentle whale, the panels like the arc of ribs. The architecture is well-suited for a library, a peaceful public resource.