Hennepin County Library - Adventure 1

1st Minneapolis Central Library early 1900's. 

Sculpture on the way

This week I began my quest to know and embrace my adopted city. I had my daily coffee at Caribou and walked the few blocks to the Hennepin County Central Library. Minneapolis is a pretty city with many outdoor sculptures and a contrast of architecture - traditional stone buildings mixed among shiny new tall glass towers.

Skyline

I was taking some pictures on my walk and saw this interesting building across a parking lot and as I approached, discovered to my surprise it was the library! One of 41 in the county, it was completed in 2006 and there are plans for a planetarium and space discovery center to be built on top of the library. This will be a two-story, 37,000 sf facility with a price tag of $42 million. MN has already dedicated $22 million towards construction and promotors are hoping to raise the remaining $20 million privately. The original planetarium was torn down in 2002 to make way for the new library.

The library today.

Entry garden area.

Interior atrium.

Etched windows.

The exterior frosted glass panels are etched with birch trees, all four floors are glass and even on a snowy day there is a lot of natural light. I explored for 45 minutes and found something new around every corner: large gas fireplaces with reading areas of every floor, reading nooks, work stations, computers, even a sound proof room with a beautiful grand piano that can be reserved for playing, there are drawers and drawers of sheet music as well.

Main floor fireplace.

There are programs and classes for all ages and all interests, libraries are truly the heart of the community. I got my library card on the spot and checked out my first library book in about 11 years! (BTW, I'm not proud of that.)