Orlando Public Library (Orlando, Florida)

The Orlando Public Library is the main library for the Orange County Library System, which is comprised of 14 branches.

This building is a beautiful poured in place concrete building with a rough hewn cedar pattern. The Orlando Public Library building was dedicated on August 7, 1966 and the architect was John M. Johansen of New Canaan, Connecticut.

The building was expanded in the early 1980's. This new expansion opened to the public April 8, 1985. The 290,000 square foot building fills a whole city block. It was built with 19,000 cubic yards of concrete. A major challenge given to architect Duane Stark and his team was to design an expansion that would blend seamlessly with the original 1966 Johansen design. The measure of Stark's success is quite apparent in the exterior of the building. The color and texture of the new exterior walls were matched to the rough hewn cedar pattern of the original poured-concrete walls.

Architecturally one of the best buildings in Orlando! www.ocls.info/flashDefault.asp?bhcp=1