Parking Garage a 'Community Bookshelf' in Missouri

Can you believe this is actually a parking garage? It's part of the Kansas City Public Library's Central Library building, located in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

"Community Bookshelf" on the exterior of the Central Library in Kansas City.
Image from http://www.facebook.com/OccupyALibrary

The installation is called "Community Bookshelf," and it takes up the entire south wall of the library's parking garage on 10th Street between Wyandotte Street and Baltimore Avenue. The book spines are made of signboard mylar, and each spine is approximately 25 feet tall and 9 feet wide. There are 22 in all, and the titles on the spines reflect "a wide variety of reading interests as suggested by Kansas City readers and then selected by the Kansas City Public Library Board of Trustees," according to the Kansas City Public Library's website.

Some of the titles on the larger-than-life spines are Catch-22, by Joseph Heller; Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson; Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison; Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury; Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu; Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne; Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien; Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare; A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens; and To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. The garage behind the row of titles was built in 2006, and the "Community Bookshelf" was a means to beautify the structure. The design firm Dimensional Innovations, of Overland Park, Kansas, was behind this unique installation.

If I ever visit Kansas City, you best believe I'll check out the Community Bookshelf!