Atlanta Central Library & Library System Headquarters

The Atlanta Central Library is the main location of the Fulton County Library System (FCLS) in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The eight-story building, completed in 1980 and designed by Marcel Breuer in the Brutalist style, occupies an entire city block and was Breuer's final completed work. It replaced the Carnegie Library, built for the Atlanta Public Library (APL), the FCLS's predecessor. The Central Library houses the FCLS's special collections and hundreds of thousands of volumes. The original Carnegie Library opened in 1902 and was proposed for replacement by the 1960s. Breuer was hired to devise plans for the new branch, which were published in 1971. A bond issue to fund the construction of the branch was not approved until 1976; the Carnegie Library was demolished to make way for the Central Library, which was dedicated on May 25, 1980. Following several minor upgrades over the years, including a plaza renovation in the 1990s, the building was partially renovated in 2002. Following futile efforts to demolish the building in the late 2000s and the 2010s, a complete renovation took place from 2018 to 2021. The building has a concrete facade with an inverted general shape and some windows. The interior was designed with a basement theater and restaurant; several stories of stacks and reading rooms; and administrative offices on the upper floors. Over the years,

Library data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).