Fisher Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania

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1886–1891, Furness, Evans and Co.; 1985–1991 restored, Venturi, Scott Dark-brown and Assembly with Clio Group, George East. Thomas, principal. Blanche Levy Park and 220 S. 34th St.

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Furness'south peppery red brick, terra-cotta, and tile library contrasts violently with the green stone and bookish Gothic item of College Hall (PH147.2), but set the stage for Penn'southward shift toward the modern sciences during the tenure of Provost William Pepper, Grand.D. Though the gargoyles and crenellations give the building a vaguely ecclesiastical character, the more important subtext is the underlying industrial civilisation that informs the building. Philadelphia factory designers typically fastened the circulation and secondary functions such equally toilets in a carve up stair belfry, thereby leaving the store floor open for placement of machinery. Furness followed the same model with a great forepart tower containing stairs, toilets, and other services.

Inside the stair hall, Furness used the iron of the stair to requite a lesson on the different natures of iron—cast, wrought, and rolled—and absolute the vestibule with some of the nearly remarkable leaded drinking glass of its day, anticipating Fine art Nouveau and early on modernism in the masklike panels higher up the main entrance. The big stair hall was conceived as a "conversation room" with stairs taking those not using the library to other spaces, including an upper-floor lecture hall and the room intended for the University Museum (PH147.8). The library user—admonished to not waste time by the Shakespearean quotation "Talkers Are No Great Doers" (selected by Frank's blood brother, preeminent Shakespeare scholar Horace Howard Furness)—enters through doors into the master hall. The card itemize in the reverse arcade was the tool that fabricated the collection researchable and led in turn to the adjacent book delivery desk.

The delivery desk, to the south, backs up to the book drove that was stored in a self-supporting storage system designed for expansion—the corking problem faced by libraries at the beginning of the modern age. The bookstack was roofed with glass above glass floors to eliminate the demand for gas lighting that damaged modernistic high-acid newspaper. Shaped like a foundry with a raised key ventilator faced with operable copper louvers for ventilation, the stack was designed to extend six additional bays beyond the original 3, permitting the tripling of the drove. Beyond the card catalog was the volume cataloging department that faced 34th Street. A quiet reading room to the north and small-scale seminar alcoves around it containing the chief books of the various university departments provided space for scholars to develop and teach the new cognition that was transforming American higher instruction.

Two additions by Furness'south office deferred to his style with indifferent results, the Duhring Wing (1914–1915) that extended the bookstacks and the Lea Reading Room (1923–1924) to the e. A more refined academic Gothic was used by Robert Rhodes McGoodwin for the Furness Shakespeare Library (1931) to the right of the main entrance; the unabridged edifice was to be refaced in this manner but fortunately the Great Low worsened—how rarely can nosotros write that phrase?—leaving the rest of the outside to exist restored in the 1980s.

The Venturi business firm'south touch was light, restoring the logic of the plan, inconspicuously incorporating modern services and designing the library piece of furniture, and lighting. In the basement, entered off the stairs to 34th Street, is the Kroiz Gallery of the Architectural Athenaeum that contains the papers and drawings of Louis Kahn and other notable architects. Across 34th Street is the Vagelos Laboratory for the Establish for Avant-garde Science and Technology (1991–1997), designed by Venturi, Scott Brown and Assembly in association with Payette Assembly. Its carefully selected color palette complements Furness's library and the adjacent Hayden Hall.

Writing Credits

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Data

• Location:

  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Citation

Print Source

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence Thou. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 129-130.

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