The aesthetic charms of Atlanta's Central Library aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye.

The flagship of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System is, basically, a big box —- a big, grayish, concrete box. By design, it lacks the easy appeal of nearby landmarks: the elegant flourishes of the Candler Building, the soaring majesty of Bank of America's skyscraper, or even the sharp, clean lines of the Georgia-Pacific Tower.

With a cantilevered, almost colorless exterior and a scarcity of windows, the 28-year-old library —- designed by the iconic Modernist architect Marcel Breuer —- challenges viewers to find its beauty.

"It is," said John Szabo, the library system's director, "a fabulous brutalist building."

But the building's intentionally off-putting stance may end up contributing to its own obsolescence.

Fulton County commissioners will ask voters this November to approve a $275 million bond issue for the library system. The centerpiece: $85 million to help pay for a new Central Library downtown.

The county plans to build a 300,000-square-foot Central Library, about one-third larger than the current facility. In addition to the bond proceeds, officials hope to use profit from selling the current property, which has been appraised at $15.6 million, and to raise $83 million in private donations.

Officials say they want a new facility with more room for special collections, with more public meeting space —- and with a more attractive, inviting countenance.

"I'm talking world-class," Commissioner Robb Pitts said, "not just four walls with books and stacks inside."

The bond issue, the first for the library system since 1985, would also pay for building eight new branches and renovating or expanding 25 others. Fulton County's property tax rate would increase by .3160 mills —- an additional $18.96 a year on a home assessed at $150,000.

An appraiser estimated the county could sell the current library, at Forsyth Street and Carnegie Way, for about $15.6 million. Three downtown sites are being evaluated for the new building.

Until the Nov. 4 election, though, officials will focus on explaining the need to replace a building less than three decades old without sounding like Philistines disrespecting a master of the Bauhaus School.

"While a wonderful building and a celebrated building and a building certainly worthy of preserving, the building and the spaces inside have never been entirely embraced by Atlanta and Fulton County residents," Szabo, the library system director, said in an interview this week.

Attractive designs have been "tools for increasing traffic" in other big-city libraries, Szabo said. But he added: "I don't think it's about having a prettier library. I think it's about having a vision for what having a new Central Library can mean for our community."

Szabo and other library supporters say a new facility would draw people downtown, much as the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola museum have done. A building with "architectural significance," Pitts said, could boost economic development.

"Times have changed," he said. "We do need something that is more futuristic."

When the library opened in May 1980, critics praised the pre-stressed concrete exterior and even the mostly monochromatic interior. And commissioning Breuer so near to the end of his career had been considered a coup. His works had included the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO; the Washington office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and the Whitney Museum in New York. His design for Atlanta's library strongly recalled the Whitney, perhaps his most famous building.

Breuer was too ill to attend the library's opening. He died the following year in New York at age 79.

"The Atlanta library was really Breuer's last work," said Susan Piedmont-Palladino, an architect and curator at the National Building Museum in Washington, which sponsored a major Breuer exhibition last year. "In preservation circles, that gives it a special kind of significance."

Piedmont-Palladino described the library as "the bigger, younger brother to the Whitney." Like many of Breuer's other buildings, she said, it is "monumental and dignified, but in a modern language."

"I think it's an absolutely beautiful building," she said.

Regardless, she said, Atlanta is joining a series of cities trying to abandon their old libraries.

"Everyone wants a spiffy new library," Piedmont-Palladino said. "The old building represents an older, shabbier time."

The Central Library fell into disrepair over the first two decades of its existence, and the county spent $5 million on a mostly cosmetic remodeling in 2002. Efforts to diminish the building's harshness resulted in new carpet with colorful highlights and the occasional purple wall. A fuller renovation would have cost an estimated $34 million —- nearly twice the $18.9 million spent on original construction.

Even a "vastly improved" version of the current structure "would not in any way touch what building a new Central Library would mean and would do," Szabo said.

"This is incredibly important to Fulton County residents," Szabo said. "It is a $275 million bond issue that will transform their public libraries. Everyone recognizes the need."

A $275 MILLION LIBRARY PLAN

Fulton County commissioners will ask voters in November to approve a $275 million bond issue for the library system. The following work would be completed with that money:

New branch libraries

Alpharetta: 25,000-square-foot library to replace current 10,000-square-foot building.

Palmetto / Chattahoochee Hill Country: 10,000-square-foot library.

East Roswell: 15,000-square-foot library on land provided by the city of Roswell.

Milton: New 25,000-square-foot library.

Northwest Atlanta: 25,000-square-foot library, replacing three branches that total 5,500 square feet.

Southeast Atlanta: 15,000-square-foot library, replacing three branches that total 8,200 square feet.

Stewart-Lakewood: 25,000-square-foot library to replace existing 10,000-square-foot facility.

Wolf Creek: 25,000-square-foot library on property owned by Fulton County.

New central library

The proposed bond issue would provide $84 million, about half the money needed for land acquisition and construction for a new 300,000-square-foot central library in downtown Atlanta. Private donations would cover the remaining costs.

Library expansions

Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History.

South Fulton branch.

Library renovations

Adams Park

Adamsville/Collier Heights

Buckhead

Cleveland Avenue

College Park

Dogwood

East Atlanta

East Point

Fairburn

Hapeville

Kirkwood

Martin Luther King Jr.

Mechanicsville

Northeast/Spruill Oaks

Northside

Ocee

Peachtree

Ponce de Leon

Roswell

Sandy Springs

Southwest

Washington Park

West End

Source: Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library System