Books. What’s not to love about ’em! They impart knowledge. They relax the grey cells after a long day at the blood-pumpin’, heart-racin’ rockface of desk-based menial labour. And the old ones smell so darn good. Did you know Isaac Asimov is published in all ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System? Or that the rainbow raconteur of romance herself, Dame Barbara of Cartland, holds the Guinness World Record for the most novels written in a single year? Facts like that are probably in some awesome book somewhere too. Our love for the written word extends to a love for libraries (communal ownership at its very best), and it’s with a glad heart we stumbled upon the McAllen Main Library – a building that used to be a WALMART BY GOLLY YES IT DID.

With an exterior design led by Boultinghouse Simpson Architects and an interior created by Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, this bookish behemoth (seriously – it’s the size of 2.5 football fields) uses kick-ass colour and graphics to magically render the space both intimate and easy-to-navigate. As well as appealing to the aesthete in us all, the layout of the kids’ section echoes the tiddlers’ growth patterns, and the teenage space mimics a spy cave, no less. We’ll have a one-way ticket to Texas, please.

Images via Lara Swimmer.