08-29-2013, 08:14 AM | #1 | |
Not scared!
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New library in Birmingham - Europe's largest
From the BBC website, the new Library of Birmingham. This is a five minute walk from where I work, so I'll be visiting next week
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08-29-2013, 08:19 AM | #2 |
the snarky blue one
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WOW. Extremely impressive.
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08-29-2013, 10:01 AM | #3 | |
monkey on the fringe
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08-29-2013, 10:07 AM | #4 |
the snarky blue one
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08-29-2013, 10:10 AM | #5 |
monkey on the fringe
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08-29-2013, 10:16 AM | #6 |
monkey on the fringe
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Now my library has a competitor for the most horrid looking exterior
Seattle Public Library |
08-29-2013, 10:33 AM | #7 |
Grand Sorcerer
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I like the pattern on the outside, but the massing is just off to me and the chainmail just seems so tacked on and separate in some views. In other views it's quite striking, but on the whole it's leaving me underwhelmed on the outside.
The inside is also hit and miss for me, sometimes wonderful, sometimes too impersonal. It does look like a fun space to photograph compositionally. |
08-29-2013, 10:51 AM | #8 |
Wizard
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Whoever deisigns these places should be locked up on an island somewhere. So they cant do any more harm.
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08-29-2013, 10:52 AM | #9 |
monkey on the fringe
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08-29-2013, 10:59 AM | #10 | |
Groupie
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I visit Birmingham once a year for a conference and so have been following the development of the site for while, from building site to finished article. The artist's impression of the exterior, shown on the hoarding, made me cross my fingers that the finished item would be better than it looked. WRONG. The exterior is hideous - a monstrosity even. The architect must have tried really hard to design something that ugly. Interlocking hoops of steel - of various sizes - hmmm and colours. If I'm being incredibly generous it might look passable from a great (and I mean a very great) distance, on a dark night with your eyes half-shut...but close to it's an epic fail. Have I made my opinion clear? PS And you would have thought Birmingham learnt their lesson with ugly buildings... |
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08-29-2013, 11:16 AM | #11 |
Wizard
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08-29-2013, 11:26 AM | #12 |
Not scared!
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Personally, I quite like it. It's certainly a bit different, and maybe an acquired taste, but compared to the old library (formless, grey concrete) it's much better. I seem to recall people having similar reservations about the Selfridges in Birmingham when that went up but that seems to be accepted, even loved, now.
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08-29-2013, 11:31 AM | #13 | |
monkey on the fringe
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08-29-2013, 12:30 PM | #14 |
Benevolent Evil Lord
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I didn't mind the Library's exterior too much, but it was a bit too busy for my tastes.
That Selfridges building though... I don't think I could ever use that walkway - too much like climbing through the trunk and into the sinuses of a cyclopean elephant/whale hybrid. |
08-29-2013, 01:57 PM | #15 |
Evangelist
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Aside from the bizarre grating on the exterior, I think it looks very, very nice!
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