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Mary Couts Burnett Library

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1925, W. G. Clarkson and Company; c. 1965, 1981, Walter Netsch for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; 2014 Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford

The last project designed by Netsch prior to his departure from the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in 1979, this addition to the east end of Clarkson’s library reoriented the building from University Drive to an east–west campus pedestrian spine. The diagonal stair projecting off the south side was intended to mark the new primary entrance, although in 2014 a massive new classical elevation with monumental stairs, columns, and a pediment (Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford) was added to restore formal identity and a significant presence to the University Drive front. The Netsch addition is based on a complicated diagonal grid system that is made even more complex by two sizes of triangular skylights that sit at grid intersections and give a secondary set of constraints to the use of spaces beneath. A two-story entrance hall was intended to orient visitors.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Mary Couts Burnett Library", [Fort Worth, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-FW47.2.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 221-222.

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