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The Community Bookshelf: 22 giant book spines, about 25 to 26 feet tall and 9 feet wide, covering the south facade of the Kansas City Public Library's parking garage on W. 10th Street. It carries 42 titles.
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World's Largest Bookshelf
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Site-level location · 39.1024° N, 94.5848° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Kansas City's library hides its car park behind a wall of giant books. The Community Bookshelf runs along the south face of the Central Library's four-storey garage with 22 oversized spines, each 26 feet tall and nine feet wide according to a 2024 article on the library's site, or 25 feet according to Kansas City magazine in 2026. The 22 spines carry 42 titles, from To Kill a Mockingbird to Charlotte's Web, plus local choices such as Evan S. Connell's Mrs. Bridge and Buck O'Neil's I Was Right on Time.
The library opened its downtown headquarters at 14 W. 10th Street in April 2004. Jonathan Kemper, a longtime library trustee, who wanted the garage to be interesting rather than merely efficient, suggested attaching books to the precast concrete columns. Dimensional Innovations of Overland Park, Kansas, worked out how, and BNIM and 360 Architecture (now HOK) designed the 480-car garage.
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WHAT TO EXPECT
An outdoor facade on the Kansas City Public Library's parking garage, seen from W. 10th Street. Kansas City magazine (September 2026) describes it as running along that street.
ACCESS
On the south facade of the Central Library's parking garage, near 10th Street and Baltimore Avenue, downtown Kansas City. The Central Library is at 14 W. 10th Street.
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