The Beacon Hill Branch Library is a branch of the
Seattle Public Library
The Seattle Public Library (SPL) is the public library system serving the city of Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Efforts to start a Seattle library had commenced as early as 1868, with the system eventually being established by the ci ...
in the
Beacon Hill neighborhood.
Beacon Hill is one of five branches, all south of the
Lake Washington Ship Canal
The Lake Washington Ship Canal is a canal that runs through the city of Seattle and connects the fresh water body of Lake Washington to the salt water inland sea of Puget Sound. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks accommodate the approximately diff ...
, 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.
[
]
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.[ 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".][ 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.
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
An LED lamp or LED light is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than equivalent incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps. The most efficient commercia ...
, de-clutter the checkout area, and make other improvements for patrons.[
]
Public art
Public art installed at the library includes ''The Dream Ship: Beacon Hill Discovery'', a kinetic sculpture
Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement perceivable by the viewer or that depends on motion for its effects. Canvas paintings that extend the viewer's perspective of the artwork and incorporate multidimensional movement are ...
atop a spire rising through a hole in the roof at the building's entrance. Other pieces include haiku
is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
carved in stones and rain scupper
A scupper is an opening in the side walls of a vessel or an open-air structure, which allows water to drain instead of pooling within the bulwark or gunwales of a vessel, or within the curbing or walls of a building.
There are two main kinds o ...
s shaped like ravens' beaks.[ 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.][
]
References
Sources
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External links
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{{Authority control
2004 establishments in Washington (state)
Beacon Hill, Seattle
Libraries in Seattle
Library buildings completed in 2004
Public libraries in Washington (state)
Seattle Public Library