Seattle Central Library

The Seattle Central Library at 1000 Fourth Avenue in downtown Seattle, Washington, opened in 2004 to a design by Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture with LMN Architects. The eleven story, deconstructivist building wraps a series of angled floating platforms in a steel net and glass skin, and holds capacity for about 1.5 million books across roughly 363,000 square feet. It was named to the American Institute of Architects 2007 list of Americans 150 favorite structures, though critics have been divided over its layout.