Look to your left for a bold, blocky structure with deep concrete grooves, like giant books lining a shelf, and lots of windows inviting sunlight inside.
Standing here, you’re looking at Wichita’s answer to the “fortress of literacy”-the Wichita Central Library. Back in the swinging ‘60s, when lava lamps and The Beatles were all the rage, Wichita decided to build something radically different for its library: the first-ever Brutalist-style building in Kansas! With its chunky concrete pillars and windows that seem to wink in the sunlight, this building was meant to shout, “Books are important!”-but, you know, in a very solid, heavy sort of way. The architects Schaefer, Schirmer & Eflin became Kansas’s architectural rockstars after pulling off this design. People joked you couldn’t lose your way inside-all you had to do was follow the beams shaped like books.
But the drama wasn’t only in the design. After opening its doors in 1967, winning prizes and serving generations of readers, the library faced the axe-literally and figuratively-when city officials called it “too old school.” Just when bulldozers seemed inevitable, the people of Wichita rallied in 2020, winning a fierce battle to get their library listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Against all odds (and a few grumpy city planners), the library stood tall. And just to prove it wasn’t done serving its community, from 2021 to 2022, it turned into a COVID-19 vaccine clinic. So today, as you gaze at those stubborn walls and sun-filled windows, you’re seeing a building that’s lived a thousand stories-and protected a few from demolition too!
