Library Buildings around the World

GSM is the second largest building at UCLA on one of its most important sites. The challenge was to integrate its 270,000 s/f mass
within a complex campus setting so as to benefit not only the management school but also the university as a whole. The building's
language, materials and modest scale are all informed by the nearby historic campus core. A bucolic creek, a multilevel garage, and
a key campus walkway otherwise border the site. In solution, AGSM was designed not as a single building, but as a campus within a
campus, permeable and fragmented in response to both the varied site and to a multifaceted client institution with diverse
programmatic requirements. The five-story complex consists of seven components, each distinct but linked on several levels so that it
functions internally as a whole. At center is an outdoor plaza that invites personal interaction and community as it emphasizes
circulation. AGSM was designed as a pivotal campus crossroads. It maximizes its sloped site with access to the outdoors on four of its
five levels and provides a much-needed link between UCLA's upper and lower compounds. It acknowledges its privileged site by
providing new and very useful pedestrian paths, by augmenting UCLA's memorable and attractive spaces, and by extending the rich
architectural traditions of the University's academic core.
154,000 s/f MBA Halls (3); 5,400 s/f Convocation Hall (420-seats); 50,700 s/f library; 31,350 s/f Executive Education Center; 35,800
s/f Commons Building; 3 pedestrian bridges; Anderson Court 48'-5" radius; underground parking for 80 cars below courtyard. (Pei)
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston, MA – USA 1979 / 1991
Awards:
Adaptive Environment Center: The Best of Accessible Boston: Commendation Award 1986
Presressed Concrete Institute Award 1980
The Kennedy Library was erected on a landfill site overlooking Boston, Dorchester Bay, and the ocean beyond. To overcome existing
conditions, the site was raised 15 feet and planted with beach grasses to recall Kennedy's love of the sea. Within a limited space and
budget, the design had to fulfill a complex-mixed use program while symbolically remembering the late young president in terms
both contemporary and timeless. A split-level design was developed, organizing museum spaces in a layer below ground, with key
emotive elements dramatically isolated above. The solution consists of a triangular 10-story tower housing archival, educational and
administrative functions, a two-story base containing exhibition space and two 300-seat theaters, and a 110-foot high memorial
pavilion, which gives coherence and focus to the whole. After viewing a film about Kennedy's life, visitors descend into linked
exhibition areas highlighting the president's family and administration. From this darkened setting they emerge into the sun-filled,
silent void of the space-framed glass pavilion. Except for an enormous American flag suspended above, the space is empty to allow
the viewer to contemplate what he has seen and experienced against a great panorama of sky, land and open sea. In 1991 a 21,000 s/f
multifunction waterfront addition was constructed to support the library's active educational and cultural programs. (Pei)
China Europa International Business School, Shanghai – China Phase I 1999 / Phase II 2004
34.000 sqf.
The four-hectare CEIBS Campus provides international-standard teaching, research and residential facilities for the
school's MBA, EMBA and Executive Development programs. Acknowledging initial funding limits and the likelihood of
future growth, the design permits phased construction, without disruption of school activities. Four key elements are
involved: 1) a modular organizational grid, 2) a large L-shaped central garden enclosed by a six-meter-high arcaded
walkway, 3) an adjacent zone for school buildings, each linked by the arcaded walkway, and 4) a perimeter zone providing
vehicular access and parking on all sides of the campus. The buildings are arrayed around the garden for functional
adjacency and to foster lively interaction. Their uniform 15-meter height, together with their shared materials and details,
collectively creates a memorable campus identity. The library alone asserts a strong figural presence, affirming its role as
the school's symbolic heart. The most important principle governing the design is the primacy of open space over buildings.
The extensive garden landscape and its enclosing arcade are intended to affirm those values that underlie the CEIBS
educational mission: communication, teamwork, social and ecological responsibility, and harmony born of mutual respect in
the increasingly fruitful partnership between China and the West. (Pei)
In León, Mexico, a white stone-and-glass-clad structure expresses monumental solidity while maintaining indoor-outdoor
connectivity. A three-story pergola of white-painted steel covers a plaza and rooftop terrace, adding a rhythmic lightness to
the composition. This is the new library designed by Pei Partnership Architects for the state of Guanajuato.
The building was recognized for outstanding library design by the American Institute of Architects and the American
Library Association in the 2009 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards. From a small-town public library in Arkansas to an
immense cultural complex in China, the award-winning eight libraries address many similar challenges, balancing
transparency and modern library functional needs with a strong institutional presence.
State Library in Mexico
The Guanajuato State Library Wigberto Jiménez Moreno is the first building constructed toward Pei Partnership's master
plan for the encompassing 9.6-hectare (24-acre) cultural forum.
Two primary stone-clad volumes connected by a two-story glass gallery compose the library, totaling 6,750 square meters
(72,700 square feet). Providing access and visual connection, the gallery contains a grand staircase for vertical circulation,
and connects to the central atrium in the taller structure. The glazing offers views of trees and gardens to those inside, and
reveals the activity inside the library to passersby.
Pei Partnership Architects, New York, NY – USA
http://www.peipartnership.com
Libraries:
Guanajuato State Library Wigberto Jiménez Moreno, León – Mexico 2006
The 6,750-sq. meter Guanajuato State Library is the first building of the Centro Cultural Guanajuato masterplanned by Pei
Partnership Architects in 2003. The library consists primarily of two volumes interconnected by means of a 2-level glass
gallery. The main volume is composed of three levels and the second volume of two levels. A large terrace occupies the third
level of the lower volume. This terrace and the elevated plaza of the library are covered by a large, 3-story steel pergola
painted white. On the lower level of the library, the gallery serves as an access and distribution vestibule which leads
directly to a central atrium covered by a skylight, which connects the three levels of the principal volume. The vertical
circulation of the building is assured primarily by means of a monumental staircase located on the north façade of the access
gallery whose own glass space offers generous views of the gardens to those inside and the activity and animation within the
library. Three materials dominate the exterior of the building: white cantera, a Mexican stone which covers the outside
walls; the glass of the gallery and the main staircase and the steel painted white of the pergolas. The Guanajuato State
Library was dedicated in September 2006. The project which was designed under strict cost constraints, was selected in
March 2009 as one of eight recipients of the 2009 AIA/ALA Library Building Award. Biennially, representatives from the
American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association (ALA) gather to celebrate the finest examples of
library design by architects licensed in the US. (Pei)
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