Big Box Library

In Texas, architects have turned an abandoned big-box store into a huge library.  Formerly a Wal-Mart, now it houses thousands of books, and provides a much greater service to the area than a huge wasteland of steel and concrete was. See also: Big Box Reuse, which has a companion book.

Via.

The Bookshelf Staircase

Making more room in a loft apartment always means being creative with space -- such as this staircase bookshelf:


Those wider steps appear to be designed as seats, if on your way to bed you're suddenly caught off-guard by a book's spine and have to stop for a bit of reading mid-stride. My problem: I tend to drag the tip of my shoe against the riser (hence the worn toes on my shoes) which will, on this staircase, keep me kicking the books as I walk.

A Sacred Book Home

This beautiful building is still sacred, but a bit more secular than before:

Once devoted to conserving the knowledge found within one particular book, it now houses thousands -- as the home of a bookstore. I can't think of a better use for a church. In fact, it was one of the first things I thought of, when we drove through Page, ND and found that James Catholic Church is for sale.


While we're plum out of church-buyin'-monies, we did call to find out how much they were asking -- too bad, they were rude about it, and still didn't tell Wifey how much it would cost (my guess is they're hoping another church will buy it and want to discourage everyone else). It's odd to see a southwestern, Mission-Revival style church plopped down in the North Dakota prairies; perfect for housing a non-traditional church occupant.

Huge Books Take Over Kansas City

Sometimes, a book makes such an impression, that they're hard to overlook:


This is the parking ramp for the downtown Kansas City MO library. It is, of course, a facade, to pretty up what's traditionally an ugly type of structure, and really makes an impression as to what the building is all about. I'm impressed that they accepted and enlarged a few traditionally 'banned books' -- Catch-22 and Fahrenheit 451, but that's what library's are supposed to do, right? The giant-book project was done in 2005, and it seems to still be around. (more photos, including construction)