I recently visited the James B. Hunt, Jr. Library,  on the North Carolina State University campus in Raleigh. The building opened in 2013, and is designed as a flagship research library for the NCSU system. The architect is Snøhetta, with executive architects Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee (now Clark Nexsen), and construction by Skanska. For a detailed article featuring some of the backstory of the project, click here.

I first saw the building in photographs, and I was intrigued by its shape: at once streamlined and blocky, its ship-like form seeming to float on a sea of earth beneath an open sky. It did not disappoint in person. My first impression was that this thing is huge: as wide as a football field, and  1½ times as long. On its west side it rises 88 feet above the sidewalk, creating a canyon effect against the buildings on the opposite side of the street. Inside is over 220,000 square feet o...