I had been aware of the Vancouver Public Library for a while, but had never visited it in my previous visits to Vancouver. Luckily my good friend Pasquale D’Silva recently moved in across the street so I had the entire weekend to experience the library and the way people interact with it.
As a laymen fan of architecture I instantly fell in love with the building. The sweeping curves, the playful lines and geometric interesections are feel at once new, timeless, tastefull, and playful. That sentence at once feels corny, contrived, and lame.
I was most excited by the fact that things like the library even exist in Vancouver. Living in Portland, a city with an almost identical population, and almost identical metro population, I often become frustrated that we are so conservative with similar public works projects. For a city that prides itself on livability, sustainability, and building succesful urban fabric we fail to really have any pieces of iconic, functional architecture.
