[1] "The Seattle Central Library: Civic Architecture in the Age of Media" makes the argument that the Seattle Central Library creates a visually engaging urban architecture experience in real time and space, without relegating architecture to the background for immersive, modern digital media. Author Amy Murphy writes that principal architect Rem Koolhaas views the Library not just as a repository for books, but an "information share", where new and old media forms are equal. She remarks that the exterior gives the structure feel like a civic destination, and yet the inside feels like a "fluid intersection of spaces" where people flow through. She applauds the Seattle Central Library as an open space for civil engagement, coexistence, and community for the people of Seattle.
[2] "Floors for Seattle's Central Library Project Appear to Float" is a short article by Brian Fortner on the floating platforms design of the Seattle Central Library, written before construction began on the library. Fortner provides some technical information on the floating platforms, which are cantilevered as much as 140 feet, and which provide a distinct technical challenge for structural rigidity. Instead of traditional columns to support them, the building relies on skewed columns, trusses, and raked columns to check the forces that the platforms generate.
Sources:
[1] Murphy, Amy. "The Seattle Central Library: Civic Architecture in the Age of Media." Places: Forum of Design for the Public Realm 18.2 (2006): 30-37. Print.
[2] Fortner, Brian. "Floors for Seattle's Central Library Project Appear to Float." Civil Engineering 71.8 (2001): 14. Print.