First Nature Library in U.S. Opens

Anythink Nature Library opened to the public on Saturday, and 5,000 wide-eyed visitors streamed through its doors to experience this place for the first time. I was lucky to be one of them! Soon after I was inside, I heard a teenager gasp, “Whoa, this is so not like the school library at all!”

The brand-new facility is set on 15 acres bordering the sweeping 140-acre Aylor Open Space in Thornton, Colorado, a spacious and sunny suburb right in the "sweet spot" between the city of Denver and the Rocky Mountains. The 33,000-square-foot building is the first public nature library in the U.S., and it earns that title in every detail.

Really, the architecture alone is worth the trip. It is stunning. A soaring tree-form entry greets you before you even step inside, and once you do, floor-to-ceiling windows flood the space with light, pulling the undulating grasslands outside right up to the edge of the reading rooms. Natural wood furnishings, clustered around some impressive-looking boulders, and swirling terrazzo floors give the whole place a calm, grounded energy. Wherever you are in the building, the spaces feel both beautifully serene and creatively inspiring at the same time.

The library is LEED Gold-certified, with a rooftop solar array supplying half of the building’s energy needs, bird-safe glass windows, a clean-emission vapor fireplace, and renewable, natural elements, including extensive bamboo wood finishes and recycled steel.

Outside, the grounds are just as intentional, with imaginatively designed gathering areas, a community garden, a separate learning garden, and other outdoor reading and activity spaces that treat the landscape as an extension of the library itself rather than just a backdrop.

The lending collection reflects that same philosophy. Alongside an impressive browsing assortment of new and notable titles, the shelves are organized around what the library calls an Environmental Kinship Guide that weaves nature-based knowledge throughout, rather than tucking it into a single section. The library’s public programs and events lean in the same direction, with nature identification walks, gardening workshops, art sessions, and mindfulness programs taking place daily throughout the year.

And, an outpost of the local fave LatinA Flavor Café is located off the main lobby. Their friendly staff offers sweet and savory homestyle snacks and beverages that visitors can enjoy wherever they choose to relax, inside or outside the building. The exotic aguas frescas I tried were amazing.

But the real joy of the Nature Library is in what you find once you start paying closer attention. A few things I'd tell any first-time visitor to look for:

• The “TryIts” Library of Things — a rotating collection of outdoor equipment like snowshoes, bird-watching kits, camping tents, hammocks, and telescopes you can borrow just like a book.

  
  

• The Indigenous Voices Collection — developed with guidance from an advisory council of Indigenous and Native American leaders who helped shape the library's design and philosophy from the ground up.

  
  

• Tiny brass Colorado insects, reptiles, mammals, and flora embedded in the stone flooring — small surprises underfoot, rewarding visitors who look down as often as they look up.

  
  

• Mud Exploration Pit — not hard to miss, really, but so fun to point out! Located out back at the bottom of a large hewn-boulder staircase, this is where kids (young and old) can splash, dig, and play in the mud — a truly hands-on, get-a-little-dirty exploration. An indoor Mud Room has a large, child-high sink where kids can clean up afterward!

  
  

• A Sensory Dark Room with a star ceiling — tucked away for quiet reflection, and for the kind of stillness that's hard to find in most public buildings.

  
  

• A One-mile Walking Trail leading straight from the library — soon to be connecting to the larger Aylor trail system — making this, as far as anyone can tell, the only public library in the country situated at a trailhead.

  
  

• Study and Meeting Room Wallpapers — made from real dried flowers, petals, and plants pressed right into the wallpaper, mirroring the Colorado shortgrass prairie right outside.

• The Living Wall — also impossible to miss, but easy to underestimate. Look closely, and you'll find it's made up of dozens of different plant species, not just a single green backdrop.

It's quite rare for a civic building to feel this thoughtfully planned, in my experience. Every material, every sightline, every hidden detail seems to be in conversation with the land it sits on. The Anythink Nature Library isn't just a place to check out books; it's a beautiful model for what public spaces can be when they're designed with real care.

Watch:

Rocky Mountain PBS reporter Adrian O’Farrill shares his impression of the new library.

https://youtube.com/shorts/nnbAytTVMWQ?si=9CzcpVe3uRGOubf4

Photos (from top): 5280.com / theunfounddoor.com; 9news.com; westword.com / Kristen Fiore; Anythinklibraries.org; @colorado.kids.explore; westword.com / Kristen Fiore.

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