where you waited patiently (and penitently) to receive the precious volumes. All that gloom has now been purged by Gensler’s Kyle Jeffery and Ross Conway, AIA, in favor of a breezy openness and sleek finishes. Students sprawl on modern sofas, chatting and pecking at their laptops in a large, airy reading room that resembles — in a good way — one of those swank, boutique-hotel lobbies favored by global nomads. Huge windows have been opened up, offering breathtaking views of the Philadelphia skyline and the college green.
a high sheen, and silvery, faceted Turkish tiles give walls a kicky, ’60s edge. Both are perfect foils for pops of red, the Penn color. Because the goal was to open up the space, the library’s navigation is now as intuitive as a good
Penn’s rare-book library is housed in an undistinguished Brutalist building by Harbeson Hough Livingston & Larson. (H2L2, as it was later called, was the successor to the firm founded by Paul Philippe Cret, the Philadelphia architect who oversaw the planning for The University of Texas at Austin’s campus.) Tucked away on the top floor like Dumbledore’s attic, its reading rooms were, in my experience, always eerily devoid of people. Today, the library — which has been renamed the Kislak Center after donor Jay I. Kislak, a Florida developer and rare-book collector — is easily the best room in the house. Now, when the elevator doors open on the sixth floor, you are suffused in a soft light that is filtered through a shimmering, etched-glass screen. Jeffery, who specializes in retail interiors and had never before worked on a library, kept the palette neutral but sparked things up with texture. The new, polished Eramosa marble for the floor evokes weathered cedar but at
website. Most rooms have transparent walls, including the main room, where scholars pore over centuries-old texts. The luxury of natural light was made possible by placing the reading room on the north side of the building. Gensler’s $16 million renovation won an honor award from AIA Dallas in 2013 and was a finalist for Interior Design magazine’s top award. It may sound odd to invest all that money in a space devoted to musty old tomes, especially at a moment when books are rapidly being converted into pixels that can be downloaded from anywhere. But Vice Provost H. Carton Rogers, who oversees Penn’s libraries, finds that students are increasingly fascinated by historic books, with their sinuous, calligraphic script and hand-painted illuminations. Penn’s impressive collection includes Shakespeare’s original folios, Audubon’s original bird series, and some of the earliest cookbooks in existence. Being able to hold and touch originals
Despite its former medieval pretensions,
When the elevator doors open on the sixth floor, you are suffused in a soft light that is filtered through a shimmering, etched-glass screen.
7/8 2014
Texas Architect 65