BEINECKE LIBRARY
YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CT Rare Book and Manuscript Library Architect: Gordon Bunshaft of SOM, 1963
ARCH 3281: Studio 1: Material Assemblies, Project 2 Case Study Professor, Andrea Johnson Robert Svaia, Brandon Zou, Alex Ruhland
INTRODUCTION The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of SOM, and is one of the greatest examples of modernist buildings on university campuses in the United States and represents a physical departure for Yale University's central ‘Cross’ campus from historic 19th century buildings to more modern interventions. Ultimately Beinecke represents more of an authoritative and protected building contrasting from the social and open spaces surrounding it. It serves its purpose to protect the collection while providing a conservative front to the University that subtly interacts with the rest of campus but stands as a powerful symbol of historical protection and knowledge. As one of the largest libraries devoted to rare books, Beinecke has become an icon in both the cultural and architectural arenas.
Previous Images: Exterior of Beinecke from Plaza, Night shot of Beinecke’s glass lobby. Model of Beinecke Library Plaza and mass
KEY FACTS
Interior of Yale University’s Beinecke Library
PROGRAM Beinecke holds Yale University’s collection of rare books including a selection of the first printed bibles by Gutenberg as well as other publications dating back centuries. It is one of the world’s largest repository of these types of books and is an important symbol. The form of the Beinecke rare book library is an odd one. The purpose of a library is to be a quiet sanctuary for people to work and learn. This is a difficult task for this building since it has a plaza and public lobby cut through the center of it. This is why programming of the space is crucial. People first enter the space through the lobby form the plaza outside. Above this lobby is a book storage tower that almost touches the ceiling and is surrounded by and exhibit hall. This space is meant to be a semi-public space for tours and showcases. The function makes sense because the lobby below is openly exposed to the exhibit hall above, meaning that sound coming from the public lobby can most likely be heard from the floor above.
A Gutenberg Bible on display in the main gallery
Location: Yale University Campus, New Haven, Connecticut Architect: Gordon Bunshaft of (SOM) Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill Project Completed: October of 1963 Materials: Concrete, Glass, Granite, Structural Steel, Vermont Marble Footprint: 125,262 sq ft Accomidations: 180,000 Volumes in Central Tower & 600,000 Volumes underground.
The level under the lobby consists of a work area, the control desk reading rooms and offices. The work area and control desk are separated from the reading rooms and offices by the stair case and stair hall. The area below that is mainly book storage and mechanical storage. The mechanical room is located here as well in order to keep is out of sight and also to make it less audible to readers above.
ABOVE GROUND STRUCTURE
WORK AREA
STORAGE
EXITS
READING ROOM
COURTYARD
WORK AREA OFFICES
CATALOG ROOMS
BOOK STORAGE
MATERIAL Beinecke library is a floating rectangular prism of translucent panels. The general structural materials of this building are granite (light gray granite from Vermont), marble, steel, and concrete. The bronze is also been used when designers set up stairways and displays. Beinecke is a box within a box. Each wall of the box is a Vierendeel truss rigid framework formed by welding each prefabricated tapered steel. Crossed together they can not only carry their own weight, but also carry the roof load. However, the stresses can come from different points, such as the granite, steel and marble panels. A s a result it needs a main supporting structure that can support the trusses reaching down to the bedrock below the foundation. The columns at each exterior corner of the box can be useful to solve this problem. So it is a box sitting on four points. Between the rigid framework, the designer placed white; gray-veined marble panels about one and a quarter inch thick. The marble is translucent so that light can enter the library while filtering out the harmful ultraviolet rays and lighting in library will be in a warm color. For this reason one of the beauty of Beinecke is that its interior lighting color will vary with the changing of the weather outside. In each season the scenery will also be different.
CONTEXT Gordon Bunshaft gained critical and historical acclaim for the design of two other buildings in his lifetime. Prior to the construction of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, under SOM, he designed the Lever House in New York City. The sleek glass skyscraper, the headquarters for a soap company: the Lever Brothers, was built in the modern international style that Mies Van Der Rohe had established in designs such as the Seagram Building in Manhattan and 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago. The building quickly gained national recognition and was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The glass curtain walls and steel construction of the Lever House contrast sharply with the brutalist designs for the Beinecke Library but considering their varying purposes and programs, the designs show Bunshaft's general attention to process of design rather than creating a signature mark on a skyline. Following the Beinecke Library, Bunshaft's next remarkable design was for the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., a contemporary art museum situated on the Smithsonian Mall adjacent to the capital. This structure featured more similarities to the Beinecke Library than the Lever House with its concrete exterior. The windows face the interior courtyard and the structure is lifted above the ground and placed on pedestals, the structure features more similarities to the Beinecke Library. They both represent Gordon Bunshaft's at the firm's departure from the international style and more experimentation into exterior spatial qualities. At Yale, like many University campuses in the United States, there are a myriad of different architectural periods represented. Buildings date back to the 18th century, while there is a wide variety of modern buildings constructed after World War II.
Vierendeel truss structure shown during construction
Bunshaft’s Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. Lever House, New York City
THE SITE Grove Street
University Dining Hall
High Street
Law School
Woolsey Hall
Bienecke Library
N
Wall Street
Bass Library
Sprague Hall
Cross Campus
BEINECKE’S IMPACT There was a shift during the period for all buildings at Yale to exhibit modernist principles, to go back to the basics of what a building should be. Hence came a boom of modern buildings on campus. Beinecke, however, is the only modernist building that was constructed near the center of campus, all other examples of buildings from this period were constructed on the outskirts. It was the first building in this fashion to be accepted so close to the epicenter of the University. The structures directly across from the courtyard of the library were constructed in the early 19th century. They feature a neo-classical aesthetic with large marble columns. The hard edges and brutal stone facade of the Beinecke Library fits with this aesthetic but provides a more modern twist. The building sunken into the ground from the street level as if to give attention to the scaled-down streetscape of the surrounding area and mirror the scale of the surrounding buildings as to reduce the enormity of the structure. The building also responds to weather and light providing even the regular passerby, a different perspective each time. Over time the building has become less unusual in the context of the rest of campus. Cross campus and the plaza in front of Beinecke contrast completely, as cross campus is considered the epicenter of collaborative learning and social interaction while the buildings surrounding and including Beinecke house a protected p rogram and collection and are less open to the plaza that they flank.
Beinecke Library and Plaza Site and Context: Surrounded by neoclassical and gothic structures, the plaza and library are a modern interpretation existing in a void between the buildings that are adjacent.
Site Facade Comparison
YALE CROSS CAMPUS
SITE
BEINECKE
GLASS BOX
LOBBY
▲▼
COURTYARD
BASEMENT
Procession through alternating mass and void: Concept Diagram
CONCEPT Beinecke highlights the experiential relationships of the spatial conditions of mass and void. It creates a proccesional choreographed movement through the building which alternates between mass and void. Considering Yale’s cross campus and northern edge as a mass of gothic, neoclassical, and victorian era structures, the plaza of the library represents a void which interupts the leisurely paths of the rest of campus with a striking flat, gridded and gray ground plane with an extended mass of the library. The void exaggerates the mass of the Library’s above ground structure, the mass itself exaggerates the central glass box collection and provides a symbol to the surrounding buildings of protection and safety with its monolithic nature. The floating natue of the mass above the plaza, with a dark lobby entry way provide a sense of mystery which moves people through into the building. The complexity of the gridded facade maintains order while subtly introducing more ornamentation to play off the surrounding buildings on the site. The void between the exterior casing and the glass box core allows for the occupant to see the extent of the massive collection which is centered in the space and lit, showing off the books directly. The lobby below the Glass box allows light to enter the space below and provides a void seperation between the mass of the glass box and that of the basement below the plaza. The courtyard which provides a void in the basement attracts people to the outside courtyard. Once in the void which operates like a shelter, only the immediate facade of Beinecke and the surrounding structures can be seen, reiterating the symbol of protection. Axonometric Drawing of Site plan
FACADE
Ambient lighting inside Does not reach bookcase
Interior views of the Library mass
Diffused light passed through the wall
Interior Light Diagram
Exploded facade components: Granite, Marble, Steel Structure, Marble
East Elevation
Section: North to South
North Elevation
Section: West to East
Floorplan of first level of library mass
Beinecke Library Aerial View Floorplan on the basement level
MODELS Facade studies: Materiality, Gridding, Unit structure
Massing Studies: Site and courtyard
CITATIONS "Beinecke Library Construction." Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Yale University. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library: A Guide to the Collections. New Haven, CT: Yale U Library, 1994. Print. "Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library." Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 04 Sept. 2014. Web. "Lever House." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. Moffett, Marian, Michael W. Fazio, and Lawrence Wodehouse. Buildings across Time: An Introduction to World Architecture. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print. Parks, Stephen, and Robert Gary Babcock. The Beinecke Library of Yale University. New Haven, CT: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 2003. Print.
Correspondance: Wendy Chang, Records Manager, Skidmore Owings & Merrill New York (SOM) Professor Andrea Johnson Images: http://www.architravel.com/architravel_wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Beinecke_Rare_Book_and_Manuscript_Library_2.jpg "Beinecke Library Construction." Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Yale University. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GmUcRix_cAc/S7YDUSSOW5I/AAAAAAAAARs/YRAEgHtCwJ8/s1600/Yale+University+-+Beinecke+Rare+Book+and+Manuscript+Library_BEINECKE_MODEL_ES12V13.jpg http://www.som.com/projects/yale_university__beinecke_rare_book_and_manuscript_library
FINAL MODELS