Inglewood’s Public Library lies adjacent to City Hall on the 29 acre Civic Center campus.  Charles Luckman Associates added unusual features of this building including its orientation, organization and circulation flow. A building’s front façade at the time, typically faced the property’s main street. Luckman’s innovation was to flip the Library to face the Civic Center’s central plaza. Pedestrian and auto traffic were taken on a journey around the site.

Luckman embraced the International Style in the building's orientation. The entry ramp is dramatically moved away from the façade. The functional Lecture Hall is a separate building accessed from the second story plaza. A three-story stairwell is encased in a bumped-out column on Manchester Boulevard.

The Library is made of poured-in-place reinforced concrete, a technique that requires precise wooden molds made on site. The material of choice for many significant public buildings of the era, it allows the creation of precise sculptural facades. Using it allowed artist Tom Van Sant to create The Written Word artwork poured in place in specialized molds made for three different Library walls.  The technique is not used as widely today, likely due to the expense and level of craftsmanship it requires.