Library Dome

Seventeen years ago in a warehouse on the bay, hundreds of citizens gathered in a series of interactive workshops to convey to the architects what the library should be.  The dome was born in these sessions.

The final structure you see today is the result of over a decade of design effort.  There were no precedents, and the final result is a unique synthesis of environmental and artistic concerns.  Directly inspired by the California Building and Botanical Building in Balboa park the dome evolved to respond creatively to today’s contemporary San Diego culture.  

It serves to distinguish this most public of buildings from the residential and office towers surrounding it. 

It is intended to stand as a paradox,  grand yet accessible, familiar yet unique, comforting and provocative.  

Permanent, yet always kinetic and ever changing as it engages the sun and clouds.

The Dome stands as an icon, a symbol of this City’s commitment to literacy and community.  Like the human spirits nurtured within, it is designed to be in a perpetual act of becoming.  

It will never look “finished” or complete.