The long-awaited New Central Library is a nine-story archive of flexible space replete with public amenities. Topping the structure is a great, airy, reading room shaded by a latticework dome. Bay view terraces, roof gardens, an auditorium, a café, and a regional art gallery also invite the public in.
Seventeen years ago in a warehouse on the bay, hundreds of citizens gathered in a series of interactive workshops to convey to the architects what their new library should be. The Dome was born in these sessions.
The final structure you see today is the result of over a decade of design effort. There were no precedents, and the final result is a unique synthesis of environmental and artistic concerns. Directly inspired by the California Building and Botanical Building in Balboa Park the dome evolved to respond creatively to today's contemporary San Diego culture.
It serves to distinguish this most public of buildings from the residential and office towers surrounding it.
This Dome stands as an icon, a symbol of this City's commitment to literacy and community. Like the human spirits nurtured within, the Dome is designed to be in a perpetual act of becoming. It will never look "finished" or complete. It is intended to stand as a paradox, grand yet accessible, familiar yet unique, comforting and provocative. Permanent, yet always kinetic and ever changing as it engages the sun and clouds.

San Diego's new Central Library opened to the public on September 28th, 2013.