![Washington DC’s first public library is now an Apple store](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/apple-carnegie-library-foster-partners-washington-dc_hero.jpg)
Photography: Nigel Young
Foster + Partners has turned Washington DC’s 116-year-old Carnegie Library into Apple’s latest flagship store.
The architects spent two years renovating the building, working in partnership with Apple’s in-house design team on its adaptive reuse.
![](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/apple-carnegie-library-foster-partners-washington-dc_7-1024x683.jpg)
Photography: Nigel Young
![](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/apple-carnegie-library-foster-partners-washington-dc_5-1024x738.jpg)
Photography: Nigel Young
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Photography: Nigel Young
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Photography: Nigel Young
Inside, the library’s Beaux-Arts columns and mouldings remain in place, although now appear alongside tables of iPhones, iPads and MacBooks. Elsewhere, a section of marble panelling has been removed to make room for a glowing Apple logo.
![Washington DC’s first public library is now an Apple store](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/apple-carnegie-library-foster-partners-washington-dc-2.jpg)
The tech giant will host events and workshops in the store’s double-height Forum space, beneath a vast new skylight installed by Foster + Partners. Guests can either sit on wooden boxes or watch from glass-fronted balconies.
The upper levels of the building remain home to the Historical Society of Washington DC, which has been headquartered there for 20 years.
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