My name is Xavier Cunningham. I am a high school Dreamer from the Colorado I Have a Dream program and I have grown up watching Central Park develop as a community. I didn’t know about a lot of the great things in Central Park, yet I have learned many great and surprising discoveries; and hope to tell you about these unique places, through my eyes, in this blog series called “Did You Know?” Introducing the second story in this series.
Laminalight
Sam Gary Branch Library is a very nice, quiet place to get work done or just get a good summer read. And while it appears like a very modern library on the outside, it is also very pretty and unique on the inside. Sam Gary has many small artistic aspects to everything inside, from the occasional colors on the carpet on the floor to the cozy study areas by the windows. And the most distinguished of them all is the Laminalight. To many, it just looks like a fancy light hanging from the ceiling, but there is quite a bit more to it than that.
The Laminalight was made by an artist from California named Steven Appleton, who happens to be a pretty big fan of libraries, and wanted to add something cool and creative to the library (while saving energy). “What is so special about it”, you might ask. Well, it does a few things that most other lamps don’t do. For instance, it is connected to a robot on the roof that not only tracks the changing path of the sun, but captures sunlight that it uses to illuminate the library. Most lamps don’t produce sunlight and don’t track the sun so this one is a one-of-a kind piece.
So, the next time you need to go to a library, go to the Sam Gary Branch in Central Park, and take a look for yourself.
Learn more about Central Park’s vast collection of parks and open space by viewing the new Parks Brochure.
