Collection by Dave Morin
The Li Yuan Library’s coffered walls provide a built-in storage solutions for all those books. Li Xiaodong, Li Yuan Library, Jiaojiehe Village, Huirou, Beijing, China. Photo by Li Xiaodong Atelier.
When the firm first arrived on the site, the second floor of the property was so badly damaged that it was at risk of collapsing. The first floor was remade with shotcrete for reinforcement, and two walls of the first floor were “rebuilt in rendered polystyrene blockwork to reduce the weight of the building while providing a thick insulating layer,” Simpson says.
Here, the Library Bar, which is equally dark and richly textured, a marked difference from the scruffy Garment District neighborhood right outside.
Boston Public Library in Boston, USA-Opened in 1848, the Boston Public Library is the second largest library in the United States, with over 24 million volumes. It was also the first public, free-to-all library, and the first to lend books out to patrons. So, if you've ever had to pay a 13-year-old library fine for those Goosebumps books you borrowed when you were 11, you know who to thank. Photo: R..D
The library is lined in reclaimed spotted gum that Maynard says “brings with it wisdom from its previous life.” A stained glass window by Leigh Schellekens makes the contemplative room feel like a domestic chapel.
DeMarie used these images to determine the best way to update the recessed lighting and recreate the original shade of stain applied on the plywood walls. The photos are currently housed in Shulman’s archives at the Getty Research Institute.
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Due to zoning restrictions, the house's footprint had to be relatively small, so Svensen devised a solution: split levels. The library occupies a landing on the staircase and features shelves built by Atlanta's Dark Horse Woodwork.
The studio’s second floor serves as a library. The sunken bathtub offers interrupted sightlines across the space and out into the backyard. The tub, like the library’s floor, is made of concrete.
Architect Gustavo Costa calls the home library the “project’s heart.” This central space houses the owner’s expansive collection of about 5,000 books, and acts as a meeting place for friends and colleagues. A Gerrit Thomas Rietveld Red and Blue chair completes the space.
Spiekermann and Dulkinys agree that their house—the first they’ve built from the ground up—is definitely different.
Resident Richard Kim, who works as the head of design at electric car company Faraday Future, tested his know-how with the creation of his own Los Angeles home, a curvilinear structure clad in Cor-Ten steel and black-stained cedar.
California homeowners Lynda and Peter Benoit designed a functional wooden structure to store books, keepsakes, and clothes. Photo by: Drew Kelly
Cohen and his wife, Sally, sit in the dining room, which along with the connected living room, is a focal point of the house, lighted in part by high, remote-controlled clerestory windows.
A 606 Universal Shelving System by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ dominates one end of the living room.
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