Saturday, November 9, 2013

Illumination

The main branch of the Ottawa Library features this stained glass window, lit from behind by lights as opposed to daylight (there's a hallway beyond that wall). I'll experiment with more takes on this one periodically. As opposed to the church stained glass windows with religious themes, this one has a literary theme, with authors like Shakespeare, Dickens, Tennyson, and Scott represented.


Below is open space surrounded by staircases and balconies for the second and third floors; the floor is ideal for author readings or performance space. While I was there, a quartet of musicians were putting on a performance. Here three of them were playing classical music.



26 comments:

  1. That's an excellent idea, I would love to see stained glass with great writers. The impromptu performance is a wonderful bonus!

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  2. What a magnificent window for the library patrons to enjoy!

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  3. Glad to see a library still flourishing. And what a great idea for a stained glass window.

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    1. The library has over thirty branches, and it does need a new main branch, but this one gets a lot of use each day.

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  4. Very nice stained glass window featuring authors. How nice to have a space for author readings right in the library. Author readings in my town are held in the town's council chambers, which is also a nice space.

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    1. A fair number of our branches, even small ones, have rooms for that sort of thing.

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  5. Love the stained glass! I'm going to show this to Collin--I was explaining backlighting to him the other day....

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  6. I fell in love with stained glass as a child. Our little, country church had them as did the larger church in town. My current church has three small upper windows of stained glass, but they are not as complex as the one you've shown or the churches of my youth.

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    1. There's more stained glass to come sooner rather than later!

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  7. Oh I can just hear those strings. What a lovely setting for it. That first pic is gorgeous.

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  8. Stained glass and music! Would love to have been there!

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    1. They do quite a bit of performance there, and the space above seems to be pretty good acoustically.

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  9. Love stained glass windows. Love libraries, too.

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    1. As I write this at the moment, I'm looking out a window directly at it. It's such an intricate window.

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  10. What a wonderful library experience one gets there!

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    1. I've seen a couple of the branches in your city. The reference library branch might date back to the same era.

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  11. Lovely window. What fun to have literary themes!

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  12. Now that's my kind of stained glass window! Love it!

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    1. I'll have to try closeups of each face sometime....

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