I am a German architectural historian and I am writing a book about public library architecture in Germany and the United States. When the pandemic started, I was in Madison, Wisconsin, where I had spent the first half of a fellowship as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The fellowship was made possible through the generous funding of the Volkswagen Foundation. In my research project, I study German and American central libraries during the period following establishment of public libraries (after c. 1880) until 2010. I'm particularly interested in the engagement of citizens with public library buildings and public input in the design process. Such public debates arise when new buildings are designed, buildings are threatened to be demolished, or expansions for existing libraries are planned. The case studies for the research project are historic buildings with expansions, or newly constructed libraries...

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