The Community Bookshelf

The Community Bookshelf is a row of 22 oversized book spines on the south facade of the Kansas City Public Library’s Central Library parking garage, on 10th Street between Wyandotte and Baltimore in downtown Kansas City. The spines carry 42 titles, chosen by the Library’s Board of Trustees in March 2004 from suggestions submitted by Kansas City readers, and were installed over the course of that year.¹² It is the most widely recognized piece of public art in Kansas City and routinely appears on international lists of unusual buildings.² The concept came from Jonathan Kemper, then president of the Library’s board, who asked of the planned garage: “Does it have to be ugly?”²

Description

The bookshelf runs along the south wall of the four-story, 480-car garage attached to the Central Library.¹² Glass-surrounded stairwells at either end serve as bookends, with additional installations on translucent scrims on the west and east sides.²

Two reputable sources give different dimensions and materials, and both are recorded here rather than reconciled:

	Kansas City Public Library¹	KC Studio²
Spine size	approximately 25 feet by 9 feet	26 feet tall, nine feet wide
Material	signboard mylar	3M Scotchprint wrapping an aluminum substructure

Both agree on 22 spines and 42 titles.¹² The two material descriptions are not necessarily in conflict — Scotchprint is a printed graphic film and “signboard mylar” may describe the same product generically — but the page does not assert that they are the same thing without a source saying so.

History

Origin of the concept (2001–2003)

The Library opened its new downtown headquarters at 14 W. 10th Street in April 2004, converting the 1906 First National Bank building, which retains its marble, bronze doors and windows, and chandeliers.² The garage was a practical necessity for the new headquarters, designed by architecture firms BNIM and 360 Architecture (later HOK).²

Jonathan Kemper — chairman emeritus of Commerce Bank’s Kansas City region, who joined the Library’s board of trustees in 2001 and served 17 years as its president — pushed against building an ordinary parking structure, asking “What are we going to do to make it part of the neighborhood?” and insisting the garage be not merely “efficient and cost-effective” but “interesting and beautiful.”² The design called for precast concrete columns, and Kemper proposed attaching something to them: books.²

Dimensional Innovations, an industrial design company in Overland Park, Kansas — which had previously restored Commerce Bank’s lobby for Kemper — was brought in, reportedly identified as “problem solvers” by general contractor J.E. Dunn.² Owner and CEO Tucker Trotter recalled a session of “about 50 people” proposing options such as glass windows and abstracted books, until he asked Kemper directly what he wanted and Kemper answered: “I want giant books.”²

Design development

Trotter tapped J.C. Hendricks, vice president and executive creative director of Interactive Technology, and a team worked through trial and error.² The breakthrough was blunt: Trotter photographed an old book at his grandfather’s house, printed it, and wrapped it around a precast mockup panel.² The team then spent a full day with rare books at the Linda Hall Library, building a paper foam-core model that let them manipulate each book’s placement.²

Choosing the titles (December 2003 – March 2004)

Selection began with librarians. The board also asked independent bookstore Rainy Day Books for suggested titles, and in December 2003 the Library opened it to the public with the call “Help the Library add books to the garage bookshelf!” — framed explicitly as “not a contest but rather an opportunity to become part of the revitalization of downtown Kansas City.”²

The stated criteria were a Kansas City connection, standing as a classic, a range of genres (science fiction, history, mystery, biography), and a reflection of diversity.² Roughly 100 titles came in by mail, fax and email; one Independence, Missouri, woman sent a cursive letter listing 20 books and the age at which she had read each, beginning at five.²

The Board of Trustees made the final selection on March 16, 2004.¹ To fit more works onto 22 spines, three anthologies were used — one of children’s stories and two of Kansas City stories.² Titles include To Kill a Mockingbird, Charlotte’s Web, Catch-22, Goodnight Moon, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, and works with direct Kansas City ties: Evan S. Connell’s Mrs. Bridge, Buck O’Neil’s autobiography I Was Right on Time, and Tom’s Town.²¹

The installation was completed between March and the fall of 2004.¹

Reception and recognition

The Community Bookshelf has received the Best Structure Award from the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute and Best of Show in the International Sign Contest.² The garage has appeared in a National Building Museum exhibition in Washington, D.C., and in a Popular Mechanics feature, “The World’s 18 Strangest Buildings and Why We Love Them,” which noted that it “uses huge, unrealistic objects to catch the eye.”²

For Dimensional Innovations — founded in 1993 as a sign company — Trotter describes it as “a signature project for us, a defining project” that redirected the firm.²

Cultural significance

The Community Bookshelf is the rare piece of civic public art that is both a landmark and an argument. Kemper’s framing is the point of it: “You took a garage which was meant to be a necessity and made it more than that.”² It is also a genuinely participatory work — the titles came from ordinary Kansas City readers rather than a commissioning committee alone, and the selection criteria required a local connection — which makes the wall a small, permanent record of what the city said it read in the winter of 2003.

Sources

Kansas City Public Library — “Community Bookshelf” (official staff list of the 42 titles) — Confirms: location along the south wall of the Central Library’s parking garage on 10th Street between Wyandotte and Baltimore; spines measure approximately 25 feet by 9 feet and are made of signboard mylar; 22 spines listing 42 titles; titles suggested by Kansas City readers and selected by the Board of Trustees; final selection made March 16, 2004; bookshelf completed between March and the fall of 2004; the 42-title list itself (including Catch-22, Goodnight Moon, Tom’s Town). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
KC Studio — “The Story Behind the Library’s Giant Community Bookshelf,” May 20, 2024 — Confirms: Library opened its downtown headquarters at 14 W. 10th Street in April 2004 in the 1906 First National Bank building; four-story 480-car garage designed by BNIM and 360 Architecture (now HOK); spines 26 feet tall and nine feet wide, printed on 3M Scotchprint wrapping an aluminum substructure; Jonathan Kemper (Commerce Bank chairman emeritus, board member from 2001, 17 years as president) originated the concept and the “Does it have to be ugly?” and “I want giant books” quotes; Dimensional Innovations, owner/CEO Tucker Trotter, brought in via J.E. Dunn; J.C. Hendricks of Interactive Technology; the grandfather’s-book photograph mockup and the Linda Hall Library rare-book session; Rainy Day Books and the December 2003 public call for titles; the four selection criteria; ~100 titles submitted and the Independence letter; three anthologies; named titles including Mrs. Bridge and Buck O’Neil’s I Was Right on Time; Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Best Structure Award, International Sign Contest Best of Show, National Building Museum exhibition, Popular Mechanics listing; Dimensional Innovations founded 1993. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵