Beacon Hill Branch Library

The Beacon Hill Branch Library is a branch of the Seattle Public Library in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.

Beacon Hill Branch Library
Beacon Hill Branch exterior and entrance
General information
Type	Library
Location	Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington, US
Address	2821 Beacon Ave. South
Coordinates	47.5780°N 122.3115°W
Opened	July 10, 2004[1]
Renovated	2017
Cost	$5.3 million[1]
Renovation cost	$696,000
Owner	Seattle Public Library
Technical details
Size	Over 40,000 books
Floor area	10,400 square feet (970 m^2)[2] or 10,800 square feet (1,000 m^2)[3]
Design and construction
Architect	Carlson[3]
Main contractor	Steele Corp.
Website
Seattle Public Library
Building design and engineering notes from SPL[4][5][6] unless noted

Beacon Hill is one of five branches, all south of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, that saw declining use in the 2010s, possibly because job-seekers in the city's less affluent southern half had been using libraries during Seattle's 2008-2012 recession.[7]

History

Beacon Hill Branch was housed in a number of locations, including a location at 2519 15th Avenue South converted to a library in 1962.[8] It was described as "the poster child for Seattle's worn-out library system", a "crumbling 1920s-era variety store with more books than shelves to hold them".[9] A new library was funded by a "Libraries for All" bond in 1998. The building opened in 2004 and included stone from the same quarry as the downtown Central Library.[10]

In 2017, the library underwent a $696,000 renovation to increase the number of electrical outlets for digital devices and add a "laptop bar", install LED lighting, de-clutter the checkout area, and make other improvements for patrons.[6][11]

Public art

Public art installed at the library includes The Dream Ship: Beacon Hill Discovery, a kinetic sculpture atop a spire rising through a hole in the roof at the building's entrance. Other pieces include haiku carved in stones and rain scuppers shaped like ravens' beaks.[12] These and certain elements of the interior design were called "phony multiculturalism" by a critic for Seattle's The Stranger weekly newspaper.[13] Four years after the opening, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said of another Seattle library design that it "shuns architectural drama" unlike the Beacon Hill and other contemporaries.[14]

References

1. Charles E. Brown (July 9, 2004), "Here and Now – New Beacon Hill Library", The Seattle Times
2. "Dozens of library projects on tap for Seattle, King County", Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland, Oregon, May 20, 2004
3. Charles Mudede (April 17, 2013), "I Hate the Beacon Hill Library, and You Should Too: A Journey to Seattle's Heart of Darkness", The Stranger
4. "Beacon Hill Branch building facts". Seattle Public Library. Archived from the original on 2014-06-24. Retrieved 2017-12-31.
5. "About the Beacon Hill Branch". Seattle Public Library. Archived from the original on 2017-10-31. Retrieved 2017-12-31.
6. Fact sheet for improvements to the Beacon Hill Branch, Seattle Public Library, archived from the original on 2017-11-01, retrieved 2017-12-31
7. Gene Balk (2016-06-12). "Seattle libraries get quieter, but digital use booms". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 2018-11-18 – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).
8. Alan J. Stein (December 10, 2000), Beacon Hill Branch, The Seattle Public Library, HistoryLink
9. Byrnes, Susan (October 14, 1998), "Turning a page: Seattle Proposition 1, a $196.4 million facelift, would expand and renovate the public library system", The Seattle Times, p. A1, ProQuest 383645176
10. Williams 2017, p. 191.
11. Marcus Harrison Green (May 2, 2007), "Beacon Hill celebrates grand re-imagining of neighborhood library", South Seattle Emerald
12. Art at the Beacon Hill Branch, Seattle Public Library, archived from the original on 2017-11-01, retrieved 2018-01-01
13. Wendi Dunlap (April 19, 2013), "Beacon Hill library: the "Heart of Darkness"?", Beacon Hill Blog
14. Lawrence Cheek (November 24, 2008), "On Architecture: AIA awards for top local designs seem almost backhanded", Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Sources

• Williams, D.B. (2017). Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-74129-1. Retrieved 2018-01-01.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• Official website