I love this new Newcastle branch of the King County Library System! We went to the grand opening today and stayed for 2.5 hours, until the 4yo & 6yo wanted lunch.
It has a LOT of great spaces to hang out and read. Virtually the entire north wall is window and VERY high, letting in an enormous amount of natural light. But of course there's no glare from the sun since it faces north. The northern halves of the east and west walls are mostly window too, but also protected from glare.
The kids' section is well done. It has three large kids' tables, and a cool wavy kid-sized double-sided sofa. My 4yo loved it and was eager to sit on it. The kids' section also has an interesting bay window seating area with orange-tinted windows, called the "sunset" nook, because its supposed to be like looking out during a sunset. I thought it was a lot more orange than a real sunset, but kids will probably find it interesting.
As far as the exterior architecture style, I hate it. It's the usual ugly deconstructivist throwaway junk. I can't wait for deconstructivism to go out of fashion. I don't know why we can't have a beautiful modern classicist or postmodern library. But the inside is more important, and the inside is great.
On the other hand, the glowing red boxes outside the door are beautiful at night. They're functional too, or at least they will be in warm weather -- another nice place to sit and read.
There isn't a whole lot of parking, and I expect it to fill up on busy days. But there is some street parking in the residential area just behind it. Also there is the large parking area across the street in the Coal Creek Shopping Center. Parking shouldn't be a serious problem as it is for other branches I could name.
The architect spoke at the opening about how the brick walls reflect the brickmaking heritage of Newcastle.
If you live in the area, visit this branch when you have a couple hours to hang out and read. You'll love it!
UPDATE MAY 2016:
What about Sundays? When this branch opened a few years ago, I was not surprised that they were closed Sundays; I assumed that would have to wait until the branch was consistently busy.
But here it is years later, and this branch is consistently quite busy. But still no Sundays. Why not? I asked around and on Nextdoor.com and got various answers. A librarian there said it was because the neighborhood wasn't asking for it enough, and urged me to send in one of their comment flyers. A person on the board or the Friends of Newcastle Library said it was based on budget, availability of librarians, and what other branches nearby were open on Sundays, and that Newcastle was a small branch (later clarifying that to mean small amount of traffic), and said it would take "A LOT of REQUESTS". Another person said it would require more volunteers working on Sundays. A retired former employee said it was based on square footage.
It wasn't making much sense, so I asked the library for data. They pointed me to this:
http://www.kcls.org/about/board/2016/01272016/dashboard.pdf
Looking at the last full calendar year of data, 2015:
29 branches are open on Sundays, and Newcastle:
* Has the 17th highest circulation.
* Has the 17th highest traffic.
* Is the 18th largest in square footage.
* Has the 8th highest traffic per square foot per hour open, or 4th highest if branches in malls etc. are excluded.
Newcastle is also larger in square footage than other branches nearby that are open on Sunday:
* 27% larger than Newport Way
* 60% larger than Renton Highlands
* 10% larger than Lake Hills
*** NEWCASTLE IS BY A LARGE MARGIN THE HIGHEST-TRAFFIC BRANCH THAT IS NOT OPEN ON SUNDAYS. ***
Nine branches* that are open on Sundays have either less circulation or less traffic than Newcastle, and six of those have BOTH less circulation AND less traffic!
* Foster, Enumclaw, North Bend, Des Moines, Renton Highlands, and Maple Valley all have BOTH less circulation AND less traffic.
* Auburn has less circulation than Newcastle but more traffic.
* Newport Way and Mercer Island have less traffic than Newcastle but more circulation.
To be fair, some of those are isolated branches that don't have other branches nearby that are open on Sundays. But not all of them. In particular, Foster and Renton Highlands are interesting. Both have much larger branches nearby that are open on Sundays, closer than Newcastle is to any branch open on Sundays.
It's been over half a year since I've sent my comment flyer, checking the box asking for a response. Still no response. Others on the Nextdoor.com thread who also sent in comment flyers have also not received a response. ANYONE HOME??
UPDATE:
The Newcastle branch's Saturday hours have now been expanded from 1-5 to 10-5. That definitely makes it more useful on Saturday, as you can get in to pick up holds before leaving for the afternoon. The expanded Saturday hours are appreciated, but adding Sunday would be even better. read more
