While the Salt Lake City Public Library system includes eight locations around the valley, downtown hosts what is clearly the flagship building: a six-story, 240,000-square-feet structure housing more than 500,000 books and other items available for checkout or browsing on site. The award-winning modernist building is the work of internationally renowned architect Moshe Safdie, who has designed dozens of buildings around the world including the Skirball Cultural Center, in Los Angeles, and the Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, Massachusetts. The library hosts a number of shops on the ground floor, which opens to plaza space above the walkway along a curved wall. There are ample seating spaces, including a ground-level amphitheater and a rooftop garden with a 360-degree view of the surrounding city, with the beautiful Wasatch mountain range to the east.
BellaOra Studios/Salt Lake City Public Library
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Downtown Community Feeling in an Outdoor Town
This beautifully-designed library is very open and spacious and very well lit, since it’s basically made of windows. There are several cafes and small shops in the lobby. There are free Wi-Fi and power outlets available throughout the building and even private booths upstairs with outlets in the tables. It’s an excellent office for visiting workers and a relaxed place to spend the afternoon reading magazines.
