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The Birmingham and Beijing Libraries have facades that appear stacked.

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These buildings have more slanted, hipped roofs

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Interior:

City Librarian Hiller C. Wellman came up with an innovative plan for the interior. A trestle was built between the second floor of the old library to the main floor of the new one, covering a distance of 125 feet. An inclined gravity cable car system was created, using two 6 foot by 2 foot boxes and with staff located at both ends, books moved quickly from the old to the new building. Books were immediately placed on the proper shelves, and the only books that could not be borrowed were those that were in transit.

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Original architects John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings designed the building as well as the tables, chairs, lamps, and chandeliers. There are 42 oak tables, each seating up to 16 readers.The Rose Main Reading Room is in the center. It was completely renovated and restored due to a donation from the Rose family and reopened in November 1998.The room is almost as large as a football field. It is one of the largest rooms in the United States without a dome, interior columns, or steel-reinforced walls to support the ceiling. The ceiling displays paintings that mimic the sky. The ceiling was constructed using plaster, with molded ornamentation, decorative painting, and gold and copper leaf. The Rose room is a functional center as well. Pneumatic tubes deliver call slips to the room, where they are sorted and sent to all eight levels of the stacks in the building.

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The Library interior uses white marble and weathered oak. The building contains stained glass windows and a skylight, but several areas lack light and feel dingy.

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Visitors enter through a spacious entrance and foyer. There are eight circular spaces in the building which are mimicked by the circular design on the exterior. The ground floor contains the children’s and music libraries and there is an outdoor amphitheater space extending off of this floor which hosts a variety of performances. These can be seen by people walking around Centenary Square nearby. The middle of the building is a rotunda which has two floors of bookshelves surrounding it. The upper floor of the rotunda has a wood-paneled Shakespeare memorial room. This floor also contains an outdoor terrace which enables natural light to enter the rotunda.

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The bottom layer holds the books and documents, representing the past and Chinese cultural tradition. The middle section is the public information area which includes reading rooms and a cafeteria, all of which are anchored to the present. The top component contains the digital library. This level has an earthquake-proof steel lattice framework with six reinforced cores that transfer the weight to the bottom level. This gives the appearance of a floating ceiling over the reading room.

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When standing on the first floor lobby visitors can see straight up, nearly 50 meters, to the glass paneled ceiling from which an abundance of natural light enters. Each level of the building is in plain view. Dai Xin states, “it’s not unusual for visitors to be surprised by the design of the new library. Entering the facility, you cannot help but to be in awe, and think that it does not entirely resemble a library. On the contrary, actually it feels more like a shopping mall.”

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Springfield City Library, Edward Tilton, Springfield, Massachusetts 1912.

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Springfield City Library, Edward Tilton, Springfield, Massachusetts 1912.

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This library was funded by Andrew Carnegie and the Springfield citizens who contributed $155,000 total. Edward Tilton planned and architected the Italian Renaissance Revival style building. Carnegie emphasized, “Public-spiritedness is so evident in the residents of Springfield.” For this reason, he twice increased his donation amount. On January 10, 1912 the building was opened to the public.

Exterior: It was built using reinforced concrete with a pink granite base, surrounded by white Vermont marble, with a frieze of white terra-cotta, and topped with a dark green tile roof.

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This is an expansion of the original Chinese National Library. It holds up to 12 million volumes.

Exterior: The Library has a three-part design which symbolizes the past, present, and future. The base is rectilinear and made of concrete, the center section is glazed glass and encloses concrete structural pillars, and the top is made of a steel frame with large glass windows.

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The Stuttgart and Birmingham Libraries both have repetitive elements on their facades.

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These libraries have arches on their facades.

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What can architects improve in the future?

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Does library architecture improve as time goes on?

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Are there connections between library architectures across countries?

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What aspects of library architecture make it more or less accessible/inclusive for all populations?

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What architectural elements make libraries modern?

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This library is in the middle of the Flower City Square (the center of Guangzhao) along with a museum, an opera house, and a children’s museum. The building was carefully positioned in relation to the sun and considers the subtropical climate. Dai Xin, a member of the Guangzhao Design Institute Stated: "The design must be in harmony with the atmosphere and conditions in Guangzhou. A material representing stone was used on the walls to reflect the structure’s stability. The east and west exterior walls were designed in such a way so as to avoid the tremendous heat from the sun, and while the height and placement of the windows is suitable for readers to see out, their placement will also help reduce the amount of direct sunlight that penetrates, this in turn, will allow the facility to conserve energy by using less air-conditioning."

Exterior: This exterior is inspired by a collection of books called “Beautiful Books.” It is a metaphor for knowledge, ideas, beliefs, and wisdom. It has a layered appearance which represents the many layers of culture and history.

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Overall, these libraries employ several different architectural styles and principles. Modern interiors like Guangzhou and New Stuttgart are very open and encourage movement throughout to create a more shop-like experience. Older libraries like Peter White and the Original National Library of China do not employ modern elements like bringing natural light into the building. For that reason, they appear overly dark and dingy. It is important to note that the most successful interiors in this collection were designed with the help of librarians themselves. For example, Wellman helped design the transit system to return books to their proper spaces in the Springfield Library and this makes the operations of librarians and visitors run more smoothly. Libraries are a community space and should be designed around the history and surroundings of the communities they are built in. For example, the Schwarzmann library uses Vermont marble which is not far from New York City. This local material reflects the regional environment and architectural history. Lastly, many libraries on this list were placed strategically to take advantage of the natural light and climate and reduce their use of natural resources. It is important for architects to aim to conserve energy and build structures that have minimal negative impacts on the environment, especially when they are large buildings like libraries. Public libraries are intended to encourage the spread of knowledge and their architectures should exhibit and use this knowledge in a manner that is conscious of their community and of the greater natural environment. Overall, these library architectures take into account many considerations and some are more successful than others. I am curious about demands for future library architectures as environmental problems continue to become more pressing and as reading becomes more digitized.

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Boss, Sam, Jiazhong Fang, and Jiangshun Zhang. “The Intersection of Design and   Culture: The New Guangzhou Library and Its Relationship to the City.” IFLA Library, January 1, 1970. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/61.

Ingmire, Andrea. “Library History.” Peter White Public Library, April 23, 2021. https://pwpl.info/about-the-peter-white-public-library/history/.

Itzkowitz, Laura. “The Architectural Evolution of Libraries - Architizer Journal.” Journal, October 26, 2020. https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/stories/architectural-evolution-of-the-library/#:~:text=The%20Radcliffe%20Camera%20was%20the%20first%20circular%20library,It’s%20an%20excellent%20example%20of%20English%20Palladian%20architecture.

Simona Ganea. “12 Modern Architecture Libraries around the World.” Homedit, June 6, 2014. https://www.homedit.com/12-modern-architecture-libraries-around-the-world/.

“Stephen A. Schwarzman Building Facts.” The New York Public Library. Accessed October 20, 2021. https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/schwarzman/facts.

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The form and symmetry of the entrance of the building was modeled after the Cenotaph for Newton by Étienne Boullée, but the interior follows the design of the ancient pantheon. The entrance room is in the middle of the building and is illuminated by a central roof light. In the center there is a fountain.

The gallery hall is five stories tall. It is square-shaped and the walls contain bookshelves filled with books. The interior walkways are in a spiral form among the reading areas, designed to encourage promenades which are illuminated by the glass roof. The forum is located below the reading area. This is a room for more formal events.

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The library is in Mailänder Platz, a growing urban area. The building has a large physical presence to draw attention to Stuttgart. It is in the shape of a cube with an edge length of 45 meters.

Exterior: The facade is made of pale grey concrete that contains equally-spaced 9 x 9 frosted glass bricks. The shell is a double façade that includes the glass brick level and an inner mullion/transom façade.

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Stephen A. Schwarzmann Public Library, New York City, 1911.

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Stephen A. Schwarzmann Public Library, New York City, 1911.

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Exterior: This building is constructed in the Beaux-Arts style. It was designed and built by the Norcross Brothers. It is three floors tall. The cornerstone holds a relic box that contains contracts between New York City and the library.

The exterior is constructed from Vermont marble, which came from two quarries on the local Dorset Mountain. The architects used 530,000 cubic feet of marble which was 12 inches thick on the exterior walls. The Library Lions were sculpted by Edward C. Potter in pink Tennessee marble. They are named Patience and Fortitude.

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Peter White Public Library, Marquette, Michigan 1891

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Peter White Public Library, Marquette, Michigan 1891

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In 1900, John Munro and Mary Beecher donated the lots at the corner of Front and Ridge Streets to the Board of Trustees of the Peter White Public Library. The building opened to the public in 1904.

Exterior: The building was designed in the Beaux Arts style by the Chicago architectural firm of Patton and Miller. The facade was made of a grayish-white, smooth-cut stone which contrasted with the reddish-brown brick and sandstone of other Marquette structures. The 1904 Library Board explained that it chose white stone "so as to furnish a variation to the dark stone which is characteristic of the architecture of Marquette." The windows on the first story are round-arched with keystones. The second-story windows are rectangular. An ornamental cornice adorns the red tile hipped roof. The main entrance is marked by four giant fluted columns.

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This library was architected and designed by Francine Houben and Mecanoo, a Netherlands-based architectural practice. Houben says her design was ‘inspired by the energy of this great city. I hope that the adventure of going through the building will draw many more people towards the joy of learning and reading, and even just to simply experience the pleasure of social interaction that a great public space can provide.”

Exterior: The library has a glass facade. It is a transparent building overall but has delicate filigree skin which is arranged in circular forms and influenced by the artisan traditions of this once industrial city. The reflective facade blocks the harsh sun in afternoon while allowing natural daylight into the interiors. The ground floor is built on a mass of soil which provides insulation to the building.

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National Library of China, Beijing, 1909

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National Library of China, Beijing, 1909

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The original national library is built using traditional Chinese architectural principles. It was built with timber. Wooden posts, beams, and lintels make up its framework. Walls create separations between rooms and bear the weight of the entire structure. The roof shades the building and prevents rain damage but there is much less natural light in the interior than the new library. At first, readers could not borrow books but this was changed in 1918. In 1979, under an Accord requiring cultural exchanges between the U.S. and China, it began to exchange books with the Library of Congress. Starting in 1982 librarians from the NLC visited and studied the Library of Congress and the Yale University Library.

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Libraries are thought to have dated back to Mesopotamia and existed as far back as books themselves. Library architecture has varied historically based upon the specific use of libraries, the architectural styles of the area, and the construction technology available. There are several types of libraries whose specific markets may also impact their architecture. These include academic, children’s, national, public lending, reference, research, digital, and special. Though these impact library architecture, there are a set of features that architects and designers must build into most libraries. Libraries must have a classification system so that books can be located quickly. They often have a circulation desk at the front which handles user accounts and the loaning and returning of materials. There is also often a reference desk that answers questions about library programming, structure, and contents. Library architecture should be prioritized as librarians have historically complained that building designs to not foster their ability to successfully complete their jobs. Foe example, some librarians have argued that architects prioritize constructing a building that appears monumental but does not account for the priorities of librarians. These architects are often hired through competitions and are not required to have knowledge of library architecture specifically. Lastly, architecture staff often fail to consult librarians when constructing new buildings. In this project I discuss library architecture in China, England, Germany, and the United States. I look at a traditional and modern libraries. I evaluate each library in regards to the above requirements and concerns about library architecture. Overall, this project emphasizes that libraries should be designed with the needs of librarians and visitors in mind. Library designs reflect the level of access they afford to their visitors. Overall, effective libraries should provide a visible pathway in which the visitor can search for books and should reflect the history of their location and population in their architecture.