Kansas City Public Library

Look closely, these are NOT books!

While I was aimlessly surfing one night for anything book-related I chanced upon this photo of a row of books.  Ok, typical, but as I looked more closely I said, wait, isn't that a person walking down a street?!  Apparently it's the facade of a building, a library!  Yes, it's the Kansas City Public Library, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Here's what else I found:

This building is actually the Central Library Parking Garage. This is a photo of the entrance in the center.

 

And the other half of the facade to the left of the entrance.

The 22 book bindings measure approximately 25' by 9'
(http://www.dimin.com/)

And here's a close up of the "book" spines :-) Nice! They look so real!

The spines look exactly like the books' original designs, including Catch-22, Charlotte's Web and To Kill a Mockingbird :-D

And here's another one :-)

How it as done:  Designed by Dimensional Innovations, the people of Kansas City were asked to help pick highly influential book titles that represent Kansas City. This method ensured the titles would truly represent Kansas Citians' cultural and literary interests.  Then Dimensional Innovations professionally photographed rare books and used software to modify and place the desired titles.

Here's a long shot of the facade.

And here's a longer one. Here you can see the roof of the building already.

Here is a sketch of the plans from Dimensional Innovations Website:

Now here's another one. Again these are NOT books.

It's the library's temporary outdoor structure. Cool!

Here's more, the INTERIORS.

Here is the library's children area.

From http://www.dimin.com/: As children enter the space, they are greeted by open book pages featuring quotes from famous children's books followed by a hall of 3-D book spines that immerse the children as if walking along a larger than life book shelf. The books are fabricated from Sintra, hard coated foam and are covered with 3M™ graphics and faux painted finishes.