Feel this one so much, Millicent. I used to study at this brutalist library at uni in Toronto called Robarts. I shit you not, it's shaped like a concrete chicken..
I was also a Library Kid and found myself there most days for stillness and stability (and access to water and a bathroom and places to hide) and realized how I avoided them for a long time after I became *an adult* because I thought it would be a horrible reminder of a horrible time. When I went back I was like, wait…
Long live libraries (and their staff because damn)
I remember the particular smell that my library in Mount Vernon had,kind of musty, but the place seemed grand in its’ small way. The librarians used clickers to call each other…I went back there a few years ago, kind of sad and beat up, with a security guard at the door.
On a side note, don’t skip on the N.Y. Public library e-book collection,extensive,and I still use it . Reading illuminated words on an ipad is easier for those of us with compromised eyesight.
Every now and then I have a flashback to the A-level smoking study and its tiny, overflowing aluminum ashtrays and feel the years slipping away from my life. Thanks for reminding me I need to get a new library card!
Wonderful piece. UChicago had one brutal library, one beautiful library and one slightly hidden science library, and I remember them all fondly. In graduate school I got a card at the local library to work in on weekends so my off hours studying would be somewhere friendlier than the grad student office where I did my weekday studying. When we moved to New York I sorta lost the habit, until we moved to Ridgewood and something about landing in a more neighborhood-y part of the neighborhood made me crave the library again. I’ve not used it nearly enough (I’m also a devoted ‘let’s give writers money’ kind of book buyer), but reading this makes me think I should try it more.
I feel like the Ridgewood library doesn't suffer from books of the moment, which works for me. Why are the libraries so often brutal? I don't hate it, it does seem an appropriate architectural style for knowledge.
It must be something about timing, right? As in, brutal architecture was popular at the same time that more campuses and public buildings were being built. Feels like every campus, even the really romantic or gothic ones, has a few brutalist buildings... The one at UChicago sort of has the shape of library stacks, it also always felt appropriate to me (but then, being from Eastern Europe, I may just be used to blocks of concrete).
Feel this one so much, Millicent. I used to study at this brutalist library at uni in Toronto called Robarts. I shit you not, it's shaped like a concrete chicken..
I was also a Library Kid and found myself there most days for stillness and stability (and access to water and a bathroom and places to hide) and realized how I avoided them for a long time after I became *an adult* because I thought it would be a horrible reminder of a horrible time. When I went back I was like, wait…
Long live libraries (and their staff because damn)
Definitely. Sometimes I think we overcorrect and avoid a place that means a lot. Luckily there's still here for us.
I remember the particular smell that my library in Mount Vernon had,kind of musty, but the place seemed grand in its’ small way. The librarians used clickers to call each other…I went back there a few years ago, kind of sad and beat up, with a security guard at the door.
On a side note, don’t skip on the N.Y. Public library e-book collection,extensive,and I still use it . Reading illuminated words on an ipad is easier for those of us with compromised eyesight.
That musty smell is also in the best bookstores. Old paper.
Every now and then I have a flashback to the A-level smoking study and its tiny, overflowing aluminum ashtrays and feel the years slipping away from my life. Thanks for reminding me I need to get a new library card!
It was truly repulsive in a dedicated way.
Wonderful piece. UChicago had one brutal library, one beautiful library and one slightly hidden science library, and I remember them all fondly. In graduate school I got a card at the local library to work in on weekends so my off hours studying would be somewhere friendlier than the grad student office where I did my weekday studying. When we moved to New York I sorta lost the habit, until we moved to Ridgewood and something about landing in a more neighborhood-y part of the neighborhood made me crave the library again. I’ve not used it nearly enough (I’m also a devoted ‘let’s give writers money’ kind of book buyer), but reading this makes me think I should try it more.
I feel like the Ridgewood library doesn't suffer from books of the moment, which works for me. Why are the libraries so often brutal? I don't hate it, it does seem an appropriate architectural style for knowledge.
It must be something about timing, right? As in, brutal architecture was popular at the same time that more campuses and public buildings were being built. Feels like every campus, even the really romantic or gothic ones, has a few brutalist buildings... The one at UChicago sort of has the shape of library stacks, it also always felt appropriate to me (but then, being from Eastern Europe, I may just be used to blocks of concrete).
Towson library was the best!! Libraries rule.
God damn, Millicent! Yes to all! I feel the same way about libraries and hope and history.