--- description: Find out why Austin Central Library in Austin, Texas is on TIME’s 2018 list of the World’s 100 Greatest Places. title: Austin Central Library Is One of the World’s Greatest Places 2018 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b3d53822dbcd51a/69893883656a3f7e7bbd5490/austin-central-library-austin-worlds-greatest-places-20181.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 22, 2018 # Austin Central Library Austin, Texas by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Nic Lehoux At [this library](https://library.austintexas.gov/central-library "undefined"), which opened in 2017, the books—500,000 in total—are just the beginning of the story. There’s also an art gallery, an event space, a rooftop butterfly garden, a series of group-study rooms, a café (featuring several cookbook-inspired meals) and a “technology petting zoo,” which enables visitors to toy with next-generation gadgets, like a 3-D printer. The building itself—which centers around a six-story, sun-drenched atrium—is cutting-edge too. In July, it earned a Platinum LEED certification for its sustainable design, which includes a bicycle-repair and parking garage and a cistern on the roof that pipes rainwater to the bathrooms. —_Julia Zorthian_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2018/5359176/austin-central-library-texas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2018/5359176/austin-central-library-texas/"},"headline":"Austin Central Library","datePublished":"2018-08-22T21:32:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:26:37.337Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2018/5359176/austin-central-library-texas/","keywords":["World's Greatest Places 2018"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b3d53822dbcd51a/69893883656a3f7e7bbd5490/austin-central-library-austin-worlds-greatest-places-20181.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b3d53822dbcd51a/69893883656a3f7e7bbd5490/austin-central-library-austin-worlds-greatest-places-20181.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2018/5359176/austin-central-library-texas/","name":"Austin Central Library"}}]}] ```