Jason A. Grout       //      Architectural Design

The Lexington Little Free Library is a circular structure suspended beneath an existing water tower in the up-and-coming Distillery District on Manchester Avenue in Lexington, Kentucky. This small, glass-enclosed space floats 2 feet above the ground, supported by 8 steel cables. The interior space gives room for 8 book stacks as well as seating. These stacks serve multiple purposes: to house the books themselves, to act as bench seating for inhabitants, and the external skin-texture; the book pages, facing outward, become the library's exterior design. To protect these delicate pages from sun damage, the shelves were strategically placed on the northern face of the circle with the seating on the southern face. To further this cause, a triangular sun awning was tensioned between the four supporting columns of the water tower. Overall, this intimate, floating space encourages personal connection between reader and book, elevating literature above all other aspects of life.