\"The Architecture of Democracy\"

June 21, 2001 - 10:33am — Ryan

The Boston Globe\'s review of the Boston Public Library\'s new branch in Allston:

The paucity of books is an index of the way libraries are changing. They are, increasingly, community centers. Art galleries, children\'s storytelling areas, gardens, and meeting rooms become as important as book stacks. The meeting rooms are venues for the kind of healthy community activism that influenced the design of the Allston library in the first place. And of course, libraries now are centers for other kinds of information, with free computer work stations. I still think they should have a lot more books. But as a building, Allston is a triumph of what you might call the architecture of democracy.