In the heart of Karratha in Western Australia, sits the new Red Earth Arts Precinct, a cultural epicenter for the community at large. The arts and culture center features a over 450 seat theater, rooftop cinema, outdoor amphitheater, gallery and public historical library. The colossal center was designed to emulate the surrounding Karratha hills with an textured exterior façade.

Photograph © Chuck Choi

New construction has some unique advantages, allowing an architect a clean slate in which to erect their envisioned design. For library construction, as a public use facility, architects are treating these buildings as epicenters where people can meet and enjoy their love of reading.

Architecture’s status as a “landmark” is based on a variety of factors. The structure must be uniquely and beautifully designed, but it also must serve some great function to the location’s community. Not surprising, when local Edmonton architects, Marshall Tittemore and European powerhouse Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects (SHL) were commissioned for the Highlands Branch Library, it would result in something landmark worthy.

The new McAllen, Texas, Public Library – which opened on the site of a vacant Walmart in December 2011 – was envisioned by city officials from the start of architectural bidding to include environmentally friendly features. But, from the perspective of Boultinghouse Simpson Gates Architects in McAllen, no design could be more environmentally conscious than adaptively reusing the former “big box” retail store, saving approximately 130,000 square feet of building demolition debris from being sent to the local landfill.