Seattle Washington has an extraordinary building as its main public library. Built in 2004, the exterior of this Rem Koolhaas structure presents eleven stories of starkly-angled glass supported by a grid of steel diagonals. It is stunning, and yet manages to blend into the downtown cityscape.

On a recent visit I captured some of its glass skin and metal bones. I hope I also caught some of its spirit. Only a couple of these pictures show the structure for the building that it is. Most of my images border on the abstract. The interplay of sun, steel, and glass reveal patterns of ethereal light and shadow that sometimes appear as substantive as the steel and glass. If some of the images appear a bit disorienting, a result of reflections everywhere and a scarcity of right angles, the real thing is even more so.

The first seven pictures are exterior shots, the rest were taken inside the building.

Jerry Gerber