"Gregor Turk’s work for Metropolitan Library consists of three components; Compendium, Portal, and Procession. ‘Portal’ and ‘Compendium’ are two sides of the same sculpture. On its east façade; Portal contains contour lines of the area’s topography, etched onto stainless steel panels with a center porthole that greets visitors as they approach the facility, reinforcing the concept of the library as a portal. The sculpture’s west façade features a lightboard grid of twenty-five stained glass windows repurposed from the Capitol View Baptist Church, previously located on the site.
Inside the library, mounted to the wall is ‘Passage’, a map of houses and buildings found along a 3,750-foot section of Metropolitan Parkway. As patrons walk down the main library corridor, they will also proceed down a miniature version of Metropolitan Parkway with neighborhood buildings replicated on the corresponding walls.
Together, these works speak to the concept of libraries and books as “portals” and the metaphor of the book as a form of illumination, drawing in community members and providing an activated public space."