Day 4 Arabian Library
Scotty, RedBall Assistant on Jan 24 2008 at 12:02 pm | Filed under: Sites
Arabian Library, RedBall goes UP
Due to an early morning interview, we decided that it would be best to install the ball late in the afternoon the day before. No need to kill someone the morning of……
If you have not been to the Arabian Library and are into modern minimal structures this will be a real treat for you…. if you are not then go to one of the other 3 branches (I cannot tell you how many times I heard how much people hated this building). The outer shell is made-up of steel panels that have been (Im guessing) chemically rusted to every orange hue you can think of. When you first walk up you may notice that nothing is level on the building, it looks much like a structure that was created and then dropped in a sandbox. Natural light enters the building through the space use of windows in certain areas of the building. Again, its quite magnificent. The inside is sparse which gives way to what is important; the books, the CD’s and the DVD’s.
The ball was placed at the entrance to the building. We had to take the ball up in a lift because of its size. Easy right? What we didn’t realize was that once you where level with the roof, you where about two and a half feet away from the side of the building. Two and a half feet no problem, but then add the twenty four feet we where up in the air. Now thats a problem.
After all was said and done we put the ball in place and inflated it. It was a beautiful evening that as the sun went down on one side of us, the full moon came up on the other. It had a nice reflection off the side of the ball on this crystal clear evening.
The next morning I arrived as the library was opening. You could see the excitement in the faces of the libraries staff. Many came out to snap images with their cell phones. At one point during the morning there must have been a children’s reading time. The parking lot filled up with cars and families rushing to try and not be late. Some parents where as surprised as the kids to see this big object sitting above them while some parents grasped their children’s hands and rushed them by (liked nothing was there) and not letting them investigate this curious object even though their feet where dragging and their free hand was pointing upward. Its interesting to see parents not let kids be kids.
Later in the day it became apparent that more people had heard about the ball and stopped by to take a look and take pictures of them with the ball. Its funny that Im now beginning to recognize faces of people that have been to other sites and feel like there is some sort of a community following. Cool. With this I ended up starting a photo group on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/601201@N25/) and I am hoping that Im not the only one that will be adding images to it.
When school was let out many kids stopped by to much surprise. Many phones where pulled out of pockets and backpacks to record what they where seeing. Soon after we took the ball down, wiped away the rust dust that had rubbed off the library walls and packed it up. What will friday bring?
Arabian Library with RedBall
