The Central Library consisted of two elements: the extrovert lending library and the introvert reference library. The lending library was designed for heavy use and short visits. It formed a wing to the reference library and was of three storeys with a curved façade facing the Town Hall. The reference library was an eight-storey square block designed around an open atrium above a public square that was designed to be entered from four sides. Above the square floated the cantilevered floors of the library in a distinctive inverted ziggurat formation. The designers drew inspiration for the design from Antonio Sant'Elia's drawings of Casa a gradinata, and Marcel Breuer's 1928 scheme for a hospital at Elberfeld, Indiana; while another source of inspiration was Leslie Martin's Bodleian Law Library in Oxford. It has also been suggested that they were influenced by the similar design for Boston City Hall, but a member of Madin's design team said they had only seen this design after the library was complete.