Library Buildings around the World

Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA – USA 2002
Eward Clarke Cabot American architect. He became a leading figure in the Boston architectural world from the time his
Athenaeum (1846–9) was built. This, his greatest work, was influenced by Charles Barry's Italianate club-houses in London. In the
1850s Gilman was his associate. During the 1870s he produced several distinguished Queen Anne houses, and some of his later
designs shared affinities with those of H. H. Richardson.
Awards:
2003 American Architecture Award, Chicago Athenaeum Distinguished Buildings Award
2005 Preservation Achievement Award, Boston Preservation Alliance
The Boston Athenaeum, one of America´s oldest private membership libraries, is housed in a National Landmark building designed
in 1846 (1847-1849) by Edward Clarke Cabot (1818-1882). Schwartz/Silver has served as the institution´s architect since 1990,
preparing and executing a 25-year master plan. The major renovation and expansion created new public spaces and reconfigured
existing ones, relocated book and art collections, and established a museum-quality conservation environment. The result is
dramatically changed and reassuringly familar. (Schwartz/Silver)
Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room, Connecticut College, New London, CT – USA 2001
Awards:
2007 Honor Award for Interior Architecture, Boston Society of Architects
The opportunity to create a special reading room for quiet study at the Shain Library at Connecticut College arose from the need to
display a significant collection of Asian Art. The artworks are predominantly Chinese scrolls, and the verticality of this particular
form is made a counterpoint to the essential horizontality of the space as a wohle. Specially designed bronze and wood cabinets
display the scrolls individually, and provide organization for groupings of comfortable armchairs and tables. (Sschwartz)
Hyde Park Brand Library, Boston, MA – USA 2000
Awards:
2006 William D. Smith Memorial Award for Best Accessible Design. Massachusetts Architectural Access Board and the Boston
Society of Architects
2000 National Honor Award, AIA
A branch of the Boston Public Library the Hyde Park Library was built in 1899 in the Classical Revival style. Schwartz/Silver´s
renovation and expansion doubled the size of the facility, to over 28.000 square feet. To maintain the balance and symmetry of the
historic structure, the original brick fabric was extended with “bookend” additions that flank it on either side, giving the original
building sufficient extra mass to allow its two story portico to remain the dominant visual element of the expanded building.
(Schwartz)
Rotch Library, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA – USA 1990
Awards:
Harleston Parker Medal, City of Boston and the Boston Society of Architects 1993
National Library Award, AIA and ALA 1993
Honor Award, Boston Society of Architects 1991
Merit Award, New England Regional Council of the AIA 1991
The expansion of MIT´s Rotch Library ( Originally built in 1938 as part of the William Barton Rogers Building designed by William
Welles Bosworth – 1869 -1966 - with Harry J. Carlson, MIT’s Rotch Library of Architecture and Planning is one of the premier
architecture libraries in the United States, supporting the first architecture program in the country, with the first professor hired in
1865 and the first classes taught in 1868 at the original Boston campus. (http://info-libraries.mit.edu)) , with collections in
architecture and planning, has an unusual programmatic condition: the site proposed for the building had to continue to function as
a truck loading area. In order to provide 14feet of vehicular clearance below, and to fit six floors of book-stacks within a heigh limit
defined by the base of MIT´s entry dome on Massachusetts Avenue, the new floors were hung from the steel roof structure above.
(Schwartz)
Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abott, Boston, MA – USA
http://www.sbra.com
Libraries:
Firestone Library Renovation, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ – USA on construction (2020)
collaboration with:
HMR Architects Architects, Princeton, NJ – USA http://www.hmr-architects.com
Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects, Los Angeles, CA – USA http://www.fisherpartners.net
Firestone Library 1946 – 1948, Architects: Robert B. O`Connor (*1886 - + Nov.1993, Mount Kisco, NY) and Walter H. Kilham
(1868* - 1948+), New York
TO FURTHER THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING: A HISTORY OF THE HARVEY S. FIRESTONE MEMORIAL
LIBRARY
Jennifer S. Kron Class of 1995
…In contrast to the thoroughly modern interior, the library's exterior is the Gothic style. Firestone is one of the earliest examples of
Gothic with a steel frame.The architects decided on Gothic for the purposes of architectural harmony on the campus, especially
because of the new building's proximity to the University Chapel, the old Pyne and Chancellor Green Libraries, and Green Hall.
Planners briefly considered Colonial style instead of Gothic, but Colonial would have formed a sharp contrast with the Gothic
surroundings; and to the architects it presented extremely difficult problems of design in meeting the functional requirements of the
internal plan. … Firestone is not a stellar example of collegiate Gothic in America. "Barely passable Gothic" is how Professor Clark
has referred to the building's appearance; but to the architects and planners, the exterior was unimportant. The spirit of the
humanistic library lies in its stacks, reading nooks, carrels, and offices, not in massive towers or stone gargoyles. Firestone proved to
be the last gasp of Gothic architecture at Princeton. Following its completion, the University decided that Gothic construction was no
longer practical...Possibly the most unusual feature of the new library was its policy of open stacks. Open stacks are exceedingly rare
in a library this size. When Firestone was built, Librarian Julian Boyd wrote that it was the largest open-stack library in
existence. Open stacks were crucial to the library's purpose, however, since they provide students immediate contact with books and
other materials. (Google.com: Firestone paper)
Firestone Library Addition 1989, Architects Koetter Kim Associates, Baston, MA see: http://www.koetterkim.com
complete renovation 2010-2020:
In 1948, the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library
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