What is civic architecture today? Some of the best examples are surprisingly modest. The sense of majesty once expressed by public buildings'a grand, domed courthouse overlooking a town square; a temple-front city hall dominating an urban core'is part of the distant past. Public architecture has come down off its podium to engage cities and citizens.

In looking at new civic architecture for this issue, RECORD'S editors came across a remarkable number of innovative libraries. Not so long ago, the public library was a passive repository of books headed toward obsolescence'along with the book itself. Yet books are still with us, and libraries have broadened their mission: as everyone knows, they have been retooled as providers of digital access, and, increasingly, they are venues for community programs. Both functions are especially vital in rural and poor urban areas, with limited Internet access, and where fewer households have personal computers. The most visible example of this big shift is the amazingly vibrant Seattle Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas of OMA and Joshua Prince-Ramus, now of REX, which opened in 2004.