Weird Wednesdays on Urban Planet takes a look at obscure, absurd, and curious things about cities around the world.
Parking garages usually don’t make it very high on a city’s list of urban beautification projects — most end up looking pretty similar to each other.
Kansas City, MO is one of the citys who have broken the mould. The parking garage of city’s downtown public library branch has a 25-foot tall “bookshelf” facade made from signboard mylar that features the spines of a number of local stories as well as many famous works.
The 22 titles were suggested by Kansas City residents and chosen by the library’s board of directors.
The full list of books included are: Kansas City Stories vol 1&2, Catch 22, a collection of childrens stories, Silent Spring, O Pioneers!, 100 Years of Sulitude, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Fahrenheit 451, The Republic, The Adventures of Hickleberry Finn, Tao Te Ching, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Black Elk Speaks, Invisible Man, To Kill a Mockingbird, the journals of Lewis and Clark’s expedition across America, Undaunted Courage, Lord of the Rings, A Tale of Two Cities, Charlotte’s Web, Romeo and Juliet, and a biography of Harry S. Truman.
Photo by timsamoff
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3 comments
Just a comment on the photo. Americans downtowns are so clean, perfect and nice. Even parking garages are spotless. Sidewalks are wider and white! No asphalt patches or anything like that. I hear stories about how Americans used to marvel at how clean and nice Toronto and Montreal were 15 years ago compared to American cities. I wonder when it started being the opposite. At least our cities are more vibrant and safer, but I can’t help but being a litter jealous.
I meant “a LITTLE jealous”
I visited Madrid a few weeks ago for a few days. Ditto. Not only the city was spotless, the entire countryside was immaculate….