Like many people with a passing interest in architecture, I know that the new wing of the Denver Art Museum features a dramatic abstract design, titanium in folds, by Daniel Libeskind. So I took a break from the American Library Midwinter Meeting in Denver to stop by.

Most photos I've seen show the building close up, but a visit in person shows it dwarfed by its neighbor: the central library of the Denver Public Library, designed by Michael Graves, no slacker himself. (See the library at left in the second photo here.)

In fact, some valuable perspective on the Libeskind building is provided by a trip to the library's fifth floor, where the Gates Reading Room (right) of the Western History Collection embodies another grand space, one that does not require an admission fee.

(Photo by Rhoda Pollack)