The Harold Washington Library

In the city of Chicago is the world's largest public library, listed for its size in the Guinness Book of Records. It bears the name of Harold Washington, a politician and lawyer, the city’s first black man to make a library.

At first glance, the building can be attributed to historical buildings. But that's not true. The library opened its doors to the general public in 1991, although the collection itself has existed since about 1897. For a long time, the books were stored in the building of the Cultural Center, but when in the 70s of the XX century their number increased many times, they did not find anything better than to take the entire book fund to a conventional warehouse. It was only through the personal intervention of Harold Washington that a competition was held for a new library building.

Many people call this building controversial from an architectural point of view. In 2009, it was ranked among the top ten ugliest buildings in the world. Made in a neoclassical style, it combines the seemingly incompatible: red brick, granite and polished aluminum along with glass. Classical arched windows come into clear visual contradiction with the decoration of the pediment, which, rather, resembles the decorations of the eastern temple. But anyway, the ten floors of the library are the best equipped for storing funds and working with books. Today, the library collection has more than six million copies.