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Sciences Library

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1967–1971, Warner, Burns, Toan and Lund. 197 Thayer St.
  • (Photograph by Andrew Hope)
  • (Photograph by Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0)

For committed library enthusiasts, a short diversion a block east on Waterman takes in the Sciences Library, where the architects of Rockefeller Library shifted from horizontal to vertical. They seem to have been more attracted to the glory that might accrue to a tower at the true summit of College Hill than concerned with the practicality of a stack of relatively small floors for an ever-expanding collection. The design derives from a series of contemporaneous buildings in which floors were bridged between corner towers containing stairs, elevators, and utility stacks, possibly the first and the most influential being a classroom and laboratory tower by I. M. Pei at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church
Division of Applied Mathematics, Brown University (Henry Pearce House)
Martin Page–Horace Buffum–George W. Gardner House
Frederick M. Sackett House
John A. Mitchell House

Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "Sciences Library", [Providence, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-PR115.4.

Print Source

Buildings of Rhode Island, William H. Jordy, with Ronald J. Onorato and William McKenzie Woodward. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 103-104.

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