From the Pacific Northwest
They are not a new idea, but shopping mall libraries make especially good sense today. With a high rate of turnover in malls, developers are looking for tenants and libraries can be great partners.
This rendering of the King County (WA.) Library System's Lake Hills Library shows the Library that the developer chose to anchor his redevelopment of the Lake Hill Shopping Center in 2009. The developer paid for the shell and the library provided funding for the interiors.
To the Pacific Rim
Bringing libraries to the people who use them was a consideration in locating the Thai Knowledge Park on the eighth floor of the Central World Plaza shopping mall in Bangkok last year.
These images (courtesy of rubbell.hepple.net) show that successful library design in a mall needs to compete with retail design. Public library interior design needs to compete with retail design regardless of where the building is located.
As a footnote, the Thai knowledge Park was destroyed when the building was burned by arsonists in May 2010.
