contents - Illuminating Engineering Society

Ceiling suspended pendants with 40W compact
fluorescents provide ambient conditions suitable for both
computer-based activities (top) and reading (bottom).
A suspended custom armature establishes the visual tone
for the Main Reading Room. MR16 accent lights trapeze
along the armature to reveal and enhance finish matrials.
Uplighting from T8 asymmetric cove luminaires at the
perimeter of the dramatic barrel vault, and concealed cold
cathode within the ceiling ribs, provides modulation
along the length of the vault and accentuates its curvature.
A modified and inverted version of the indirect
luminaire used above the stacks is employed as the
study table’s task light.
facilities in the Midwest. The new library is named for a
Missouri Secretary of State.
Central Missouri State University is located 50 miles southeast
of Kansas City in Warrensburg, Mo. Founded in 1871, it
has an enrollment of 11,500 students.
The original library had been designed and built when the
campus had been home to only 1,200 students. Although it
had been upgraded and expanded through the years, it no
longer met the American Library Association standards for
accommodating books and students.
The university had always been committed to acquiring, disseminating
and utilizing technology to enhance the University’s
educational mission. In 1996, the State of Missouri designated
Central Missouri State University as the state’s lead institution
for cultivating professional technology. The four major goals set
forth in the implementation of this program were; 1) strengthening
the university’s technology infrastructure; 2) developing
new degree programs in advanced technologies; 3) strengthening
Missouri’s secondary and post-secondary vocational and
technical faculty; and 4) enhancing the university’s telecommunication
network and public television station
to provide distance learning opportunities.
Hastings & Chivetta Architects, of St. Louis,
Mo., in association with Boston-based Shepley,
Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott was selected to
provide programming and architectural design services
that would meet the requirements of the
American Library Association and the Association
of College and Research Libraries, while setting the
standard for technology integration as set forth by
the State of Missouri.
The result is a three-story, 220,000 sq ft facility,
with a central cupola now standing as the symbol
of the campus. Technology within the facility
includes a data network to support research and
study areas, electronic access to library journals
and books, an internet-based interlibrary catalog
search and loan, multimedia development workstations,
multimedia production centers, and distance
learning classrooms. Lighting had to play a
key role in both physically and symbolically integrating
architecture and technology.
The exterior facade of richly detailed limestone reinforces a
campus tradition of buildings unified through continuity of
material. The generous glass openings provide ample daylight
and dramatic views of the campus and the eastern edge of the
Great Plains beyond. An automatic window shading system
activates upon sensing excessive illumination or detecting heat
levels above predetermined comfort levels.
Upon entering the facility, one is greeted by a dramatic,
three story atrium composed of limestone, stainless steel and
While the expansive glass openings provide ample daylight and
dramatic views of campus, the lighting transforms the building into
a beacon, both literally and figuratively.
34 LD+A/March 2001 www.iesna.org