Minneapolis Central Library

It has over 300 computers for use by the public, an 8,140-square-foot (756 m2) atrium, an 18,560-square-foot (1,724 m2) green roof planted with low-growing ground cover designed to "be sun- and drought-resistant", and a host of energy-efficiency measures.

The Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center (MPLIC), opened on January 28, 1961 at 4th St. and Nicollet Ave. (the site of the current building).

[3] The building included a library, as well as a planetarium, auditorium, and a small museum in its basement which became famous to school children for its Egyptian mummies.

The new location in the then run-down "lower loop" district made the library a "cornerstone" of the 1960 redevelopment of downtown Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis Planetarium Society was at the second MPLIC building using a projector machine literally older than the space age itself (delivered and installed originally in 1954, three years before the launch of Sputnik I).

The exterior of the library on the Nicollet Mall side
A photograph from around 1900 of the first central Minneapolis Public Library, which cost $324,894. [ 2 ]
The second central Minneapolis Public Library building opened in 1961 as part of urban renewal for downtown Minneapolis
The new Central Library under construction in 2004
The atrium of the Central Library