Library Buildings around the World

Joel Sanders Architect, New York, NY – USA
http://www.joelsandersarchitect.com
Libraries:
Education Commons, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA – USA 2012
Managed by Penn Libraries, it is a 168-seat, 6,400-square-foot, state-of-the-art study and information facility designed to support
teaching and collaborative learning.
“A student who joined me for a tour of the Commons,” said Carton Rogers, vice provost and director of libraries, “was so excited
about the new space, we half expected her to request seasons tickets to the collaborative study rooms.
“We’ll stop short of that,” Rogers said, “but students and faculty are certain to find this an inspiring place to work.”
Inspired by Weigle Information Commons in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library (see: Ann Beha), the facility features flexible, technologyrich
work environments. A series of curved planes envelop the ceiling, and the monumental arched windows of Franklin Field
visually join the interior space with the expanse of lawns and tree-lined walkways that will make up Shoemaker Green, now under
construction.
The Commons offers a variety of visual design, publishing, math, geographic, math and statistics, Web development and digital
management software as well as a multitude of media players, all supported with full wireless networking and color and black-andwhite
printing stations.
Within the Commons, students and faculty will have access by reservation to an 18-seat, glass-enclosed seminar room, equipped with
a computer and an 80-inch video display. Four small and four large study rooms -- each with a computer and large flat panel LCD
screen -- can accommodate groups of as many as 10 and are also reservable. Open seating for as many as 90 is offered in banquettes
and in soft furniture, providing flexibility for individual or group use.
Librarians will be on hand to help students with technology and to work with faculty and University staff on program development.
Also, the libraries are collaborating with academic-support services across campus to develop workshops and discipline-based
programming geared to undergraduate students.
(http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-education-commons-weiss-pavilion-host-open-house-march-28)
NYU Bobst Library, New York, NY – USA 2012
As reported by David W Dunlap for the NYTimes, the safety-restoration applied to Philip Johnson and Richard Foster’s Elmer
Holmes Bobst Library on the NYU campus near Washington Square is close to completion. While the library, which was
constructed in the early 1970s, remains intact, the tremendous atrium space – a soaring 150 ft void – is proving to be more of a safety
hazard than the magnificent architectural experience the architects intended. Since 2003, the library has been marred by claiming
the lives of three students who leaped to their deaths (even after the university installed 8ft polycarbonate barriers). Charged with
the task of eliminating the possibility for such a future occurrence, Joel Sanders Architect responded with a perforated alumium
screen that completely walls off the atrium from the library’s levels.
Conceptualized as a random pixel design to compliment the building’s minimalistic aesthetic, the matte bronze 20-ft tall panels
eliminate the vast panoramic views across the library and instead compartmentalize views into “scattered fragments“. The screen,
in no way an “inconspicuous barrier”, completely alters the sense of space within the library. Dunlap explained, “They can — in the
right light — look as gauzy as theatrical scrims.”
Yet, nothing can take from the initial effect of walking into Bobst at the ground level, ““You really don’t lose the visual qualities of
the original atrium. This is almost like a beautiful piece of lace that’s been stretched taut against the balcony slabs,” explained
Andrew T. Repoli, a director of construction management at NYU.
The new intervention adheres to NYU requests of transparency and permeability, and, according to spokesman John Beckman, the
panels “Present an opportunity to enhance the quality, character and identity of this important NYU institution.”
Working with SHoP Construction Services, the 280+ panels were digitally fabricated from 39 different patterns modeled in Catia.
Currently, the renovation is still underway, but as NYU students return for the semester in a few weeks, the library will be sure to
play host to an entirety of critics. It will be interesting to see the opinions unfold, especially since the screens are purely intended to
save lives. Based upon such a sensitive issue, will the screens still warrant the same kind of architectural criticism? Karen Cilento
24.0812 Archdaily (http://www.archdaily.com)
The Bobst Pixel Veil addresses dual design challenges: the creation of a secure yet visually porous membrane that is aesthetically
compatible with the atrium designed by Philip Johnson in 1968. The Pixel Veil consists of laser-cut aluminum panels and vertical
supports painted to match the existing bronze handrail. Each laser-cut panel is inscribed with a perforated pattern - the Pixel Matrix
– composed using an underlying 4” grid whose spacing aligns with the vertical stanchions of the original railings while also
complying with ADA building codes. Responding to the surrounding context, modular perforations gradually dissolve along the
atrium perimeter from south to north, becoming visually more open towards the stacks and park. At the top level, the perforated veil
terminates in a glass clerestory. The Pixel Matrix builds on the affinity between the original building and the language of digital
information - both rely on the logic of the square matrix. Pixel Matrix references the building’s underlying square grid that Johnson
expressed in the square coffered ceiling and concentric square reading lights, as well as the language of digital information that
encrypts data through bar codes composed of square modules. (Sanders)
Princeton University Julian Street Library, Princeton, NJ – 2011
Awards:
ALA IIDA Library Interior Design Award for Princeton Julian Street, 2012
Interior Design Best of Year Institutional: Library Honoree for Princeton Julian Street, 2012
The Julian Street Library, a newly renovated library in a 1960s modernist building at Princeton University, transforms a 3,100 SF
reading room into a state-of-the art multimedia learning environment. Situated between a residential college and the main campus
center, the library acts as a hub for undergraduate students on their way to the central campus. Recognizing that with the advent of
digital technologies libraries are multipurpose spaces that sponsor study and social interaction, our design reconceives the
refurbished library as a wired environment where students can work, lounge, and socialize day and night.
SASAKI Architects, Boston, San Francisco – USA
http://www.sasaki.com
Libraries:
Sacred Heart University Library and Humanities Center, Fairfield, CT – USA on design
The new building, which will house both of the John F. Welch College of Business (COB) and the Isabelle Farrington College of
Education (FCE) programs, will be a dynamic, iconic gateway building that signals the entrance to the university campus for
students, alumni, visitors, and the Fairfield community. Together, the building and landscape achieve a synergy of design and
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