20 of the Most Exquisite Libraries in the World

RICHARD J. RIORDAN CENTRAL LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES, CA

The Central Library is one of downtown Los Angeles’s most significant buildings. On the outside, it’s a prominent example of Art Deco design, but on the inside, there’s an elegant rotunda whose centerpiece is a bronze chandelier, a sweeping staircase that used to lead to the card catalogues (everything’s digitized now, of course), and decorative stencils depicting important moments in California history.