Cantilevered Roof of the Minneapolis Central Library at Night

The Minneapolis Central Library sits at 300 Nicollet Mall, serving as the flagship branch of the Hennepin County Library system. Designed by César Pelli and completed in 2006, the building replaced an earlier 1961 library on the same downtown site. Its cantilevered roof, clad in Kebony wood, extends over the building's glass curtain wall and was engineered to reduce solar heat gain on the reading areas below. The library holds close to 400,000 items and includes a rooftop garden above its lower levels. It also houses the Minneapolis Collection, an archive of historical materials documenting the city's development.