I went to check out the new Cube entrance today: it's hard to believe that it took this long to create, as it seems to offer so very little.
The colour of the metal that frames it is unrelated to just about anything else on the exterior of the building. It just sits there, awkwardly, unintegrated. Just in case this made the cube seem unique, light and glassy, all of its structural supports are extremely thick and clumsy looking. Given the ease with which structural glass is being utilized just about everywhere in the world these days, this seems like a real failure. The ceiling overhang is really low at the entrance - without even ceiling lights in it, and there are only two revolving doors set far away from each other, away from the corner, one on on each side of the glass planes as they meet the ground. The entire thing seems dull and slightly inadequate.
Once inside, it's alright, but it's not exactly soaring, and not exactly intimate. There's a perfectly ordinary stairway to nowhere - to a small catwalk on the inside of the cube's second storey, which also leads nowhere. I haven't checked the plans for awhile, but I hope that this catwalk is eventually going to lead somewhere other than the dead ends that flank it. I'm not sure how it could, unless they're going to alter the cube they've just built, or have plans to break through the brick wall. The catwalk could be a good place to put displays or go-go dancers, one supposes.
Once inside, you're still not inside, as you still have to go through another set of entry doors set some distance from the initial ones. This is all a bit awkward.
I found it very disappointing, architecturally. It's really no more remarkable than the back entrance of a shopping centre. I hope the rest of the renovations to the library work out to be more inspired than this particular bit.
