Exeter Library
From Archiplanet
 | Exeter Library |
| Designer | Louis I. Kahn |
| Location | Exeter, New Hampshire, USA |
| Date | 1967 to 1972 |
| Building Type | school library |
| Climate | temperate |
| Context | prep school campus |
| Architectural Style | Modern |
| Street Address | |
| Notes | at Philips Exeter Academy. organized around powerful central space. |
| At Great Buildings | http://www.GreatBuildings.com/buildings/Exeter_Library.html |
Contents |
Images
Discussion
Commentary
"Elemental in its contemporary directness and built also with the sense and durability of the great monuments of history is the Library at Philips Exeter Academy. In the spirit of the grand, classical tradition of the focal organizing space, the reading room is a central hall encircled by balconies containing the stacks and study alcoves. It is a space diagonally overlooked through giant circular openings in the interior screen walls that define the central area. In keeping with the campus tradition, the exterior of the building is a repetition of brick piers, wider as they approach the ground where the book loads are greater, cut back at all four corners to subtly articulate the building's exterior square form. The perimeter study carrels are illuminated from windows above the reader's eye level; smaller windows at eye level afford views to the campus or conversely can be closed by a sliding wooden shutter for privacy and concentration. There is contact with and building upon origins in both the library and the [Kimbell] museum. They span time as an architecture of basic fact and of progression as we move onward, aware of both where we have come form and where we are."
— from Paul Heyer. American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century. p279.
Details
American Institute of Architects 25 Year Award, 1997
Maps
References
Francis D. K. Ching. Architecture: Form, Space, and Order. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1979. ISBN 0-442-21535-5. LC 79-18045. NA2760.C46. plan, p367.— A nice graphic introduction to architectural ideas. Updated 1996 edition available at Amazon.com
Roger H. Clark and Michael Pause. Precedents in Architecture. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985. drawing and diagrams, p54-55.— Updated edition available at Amazon.com
Howard Davis. Slide from photographer's collection. PCD 2260.1012.0405. PCD 2260.1012.0405. PCD 2260.1012.0405. PCD 2260.1012.0405. PCD 2260.1012.0405.
Paul Heyer. American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993. ISBN 0-442-01328-0. LC 92-18415. NA2750.H48 1993. discussion p279.
Marcus Whiffen and Frederick Koeper. American Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984. interior photo, f344, p432.— An excellent survey of American architecture. Reprint Edition available at Amazon.com
The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis Kahn. Philadelphia: Falcon Press, 1962.
External Links
- Exeter Academy Official web site.
