The Boston Public Library’s North End Branch was designed by architect Carl Koch in the 1960s. Located in front of the building is one of the city’s newest public art projects, completed in 2009. With stone benches shaped like quotation marks and a mosaic featuring symbols found on a keyboard, artist Tom O’Connell underscores the library’s function as facilitator of dialogue in our technological age. A chess table and new plants were also added during the plaza’s restoration, making the library a more inviting and versatile space for the North End community. Although the North End is known as an Italian neighborhood today, it has been home to a variety of populations, from Native Americans to immigrant groups originating in England, Ireland, and Central and Eastern Europe.