Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
I'm not sure I'd agree with that. You come through an elegant but compressed portal and then into the high-ceilinged central court, which was organized as an impressive rotunda. Then up the escalators past a couple of big pieces of public art and into the reference and circulation area. From Congress, you pass through a gallery to reach the rotunda. The entry from Van Buren or Plymouth was less straightforward.
Now that lengthy sequence was very frustrating for us frequent users who just wanted to get to the books rather than be impressed by civic grandeur twice a weekâbut "a very bad joke?" My understanding was that the library insisted on such separation from the sidewalks, for security purposes. That was also what reportedly scotched the direct entry from the L station.
Recently, they've eliminated the third-floor checkpoint, so you can now get straightaway to an elevator right on the ground floor. Unfortunately, that means going to what seems like the service corridor in the back of the building.
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Yes, you enter through a compressed portal, which is fine, and then you arrive at an *adequate* space with the whole in the floor (looking down on a space that hardly anyone inhabits)...
the real problem starts once you arrive in that ground floor space which one would most likely be in only if they didn't know where they were going... once you do realize how to get up into the library, you either have to wait for an elevator, or you *turn-around* and have to use *single-wide*, *switch-back* escalators to arrive in a completely *pedestrian* space...
what is elegant about that? what about that sequence was even remotely beaux-arts inspired? where is the grand staircase? all of the regular users never get even remotely close to the lobby with the round whole because they know to just immediately turnaround upon entering to take the two, narrow escalator rides to... more boredom.