Library Buildings around the World

under flanking low roofs that serve reading and study areas. They are centrally located within a two-story volume vaulting toward
north-facing clerestory windows. The windows allow natural lighting during the day and save energy. (Ehrlich)
Eisenman Architects, New York, NY – USA
http://www.eisenmanarchitects.com
Libraries:
Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, NY – USA 1997 on progress
Aronoff Center for Design and Art, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH – USA 1988 – 1996
Peter Eisenman’s program here was to re-organize 13,400 square meters of existing space and add 12,000 square meters of new
space, including a library, theater, exhibition space, studio space, and office space. This was to unify the University of Cincinnati’s
schools of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning. Eisenman’s work is part of an ambitious campus master plan with work (some in
progress) by Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Pei Cobb Freed, and Venturi Scott Brown. Eisenman came to public notice as part of
the "New York Five" (Meier, Hejduk, Graves, Gwathmey, and Eisenman) of the 1970s. Known primarily for being a theorist,
Eisenman’s later forays into the built world have been greeted with a rather wide variety of opinion. Ohio seems to love him,
commissioning work in Columbus and Cincinnati at a generous rate. However, were you to come of age looking at nothing but
heavy, gridded, often oppressive and bleakly-toned sandstone, you might love someone who tilts a grid and paints it pastel, too.
People often complain of the "disorienting" sensation of his tilted planes, to which Eisenman responds: That is what I have always
been trying to do--to displace the subject--to oblige the subject to reconceptualize architecture. We have actually to change the
relationship of the body to architecture. The body has to send messages to the brain saying ‘wait a minute, something that I need to
adjust to, something that I need to understand is happening to me.’ Eisenman’s "displacement" is particularly acute in the Aronoff
center. I had no organizational understanding of the building, and wandered around like a confused freshman, looking for any
orienting or central area. Since I visited in the summer, I did not have a chance to see how it was used by throngs of adventurous
students. Of the forms of the Aronoff Center, Eisenman notes that his "vocabulary derives from the curves of the land forms and the
chevron forms of the existing building; the dynamic relationship between these two forms organize the space between them." I found
this "attention to the curves of the land" to be more notable in the landscape architecture (by Hargreaves Associates) of the site,
especially on the rear side of the building. The most intriguing view of the center is of it nestled behind sensuous land forms and
elegant trees--a responsive design to the University of Cincinnati’s precarious hilltop site. (Christy Rogers) http://www.galisky.com
Wexner Center for the Visual Arts and Fine Arts Library, Columbus, OH – USA 1998
Since opening in 1989, the Wexner Center has attracted international acclaim for its innovative architecture and well-equipped
facilities, as well as its bold artistic programs. Designed by architects Peter Eisenman and Richard Trott, the Wexner Center
building houses four exhibition galleries (totaling approximately 13,000 square feet), an intimate video exhibition space called "The
Box"; the Film/Video Theater; and the Performance Space, a "black box" theater with flexible seating. Also on site are Wexner
Center offices and the Art & Technology facility, a state-of-the-art video postproduction studio.
Mershon Auditorium, adjacent to the Wexner Center building, features a large multipurpose auditorium/theater, as well as
complete front-of-house and back-of-house facilities and administrative spaces.
The Wexner Center also presents events at several other venues on campus. These include Weigel Auditorium, a 800-seat concert
hall administered by Ohio State's School of Music, and Thurber Theatre at Drake Performance and Event Center, a mid-sized
proscenium theater administered by Ohio State's Department of Theatre.
Ohio State's Fine Arts Library and Cartoon Research Library are located on the lower level of the Wexner Center building. The
entrance to both libraries is from the outdoor walkway under the Wexner Center's grid and can be found just south of the 17th
Avenue Plaza. (http://www.wexarts.org)
City of Culture of Galicia Archive and Library, Santiago de Compostela – Spain 2011
Masonry: Iberdouro, Metal doors: Lama, Built-up roofing: Pavimentos de Tudela
The evocative title of the exhibition Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman, 1978–1988 at the Canadian
Centre for Architecture in Montreal in 1994 turns out to be an oracular description of the architect’s City of Culture of
Galicia in northwest Spain. Eisenman’s project of a lifetime, now 12 years in design and construction, has involved serious
digging and earthmoving to create topographical man-made structures that blur figure and ground. With two buildings just
open, the complex’s raw state presents an artificial landscape of thrashing, gnashing stone creatures restlessly rising up from
the earth before subsiding into calm ripples.
Eisenman won the competition for the City of Culture in 1999 at the right time economically, and in the right country
architecturally. Since the end of Franco’s reign in 1975, Spanish architects have been turning out high-quality Modernist
design in a country also receptive to the tours de force of internationally known architects. After Frank Gehry’s
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao opened in 1997, Manuel Fraga Iribarne, the president of the Xunta of Galicia, initiated the 1
million-square-foot research, study, and arts center for his own region. The brief for the City of Culture ambitiously called
for a periodicals archive, library, museum, music theater, central services and administration building, and international
arts center with a budget of around $145 million.
Eisenman’s winning scheme, folded into the earth and seductively represented by a molded wood model, beat out varied
proposals by ten finalists: Steven Holl Architects, OMA/Rem Koolhaas, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Gigon Guyer Architects,
Dominique Perrault Architecture, Studio Daniel Libeskind, Juan Navarro Baldeweg, César Portela, Ricardo Bofill/Taller de
Arquitectura, and José Manuel Gallego Jorreto.
The 173-acre site on Mount Gaiás can be glimpsed from nearby Santiago de Compostela where the cathedral houses the
remains of the apostle St. James, brought to Spain from Jerusalem after his death in AD 44. Since the eighth century,
pilgrims have trekked to the medieval town to pay homage to his shrine.
Although Eisenman’s proposal indicated eight buildings, today it’s down to six. Two of the buildings, the 155,205-square-
foot Archive of Galicia and the 186,990-square-foot Library of Galicia, opened in January. The 223,889-square-foot
Museum of Galicia and the 80,729-square-foot Central Services Building are expected to be completed by late fall, although
the museum won’t be installed until next spring. It is easy to see that the scale is daunting. When all six structures are
finished, the City of Culture could almost function as a small international airport (except, of course, the planes’ pilots might
mistake the buildings for runways). But the projected space needs were not determined by the architects.
The program, conceived at the cusp of the digtal age and during the halcyon years of economic prosperity, got caught in a
programmatic and financial time warp. And the government changed in 2005. The archive was slated to be a periodicals
library with a large reading room. When it morphed into an archive for storing regional documents, the large space for a
reading room was turned over to the exhibition of rare documents. But because of the presence of an expansive south-facing
glazed wall, temporary polygonal structures enclose the fragile artifacts. As for the library, the original plan to house
250,000 books grew to a million under the wishes of the Galician administration. Now, while rare books occupy a central
glazed core, the ongoing digitization of library collections generally raises a question about future space requirements. It
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