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The exterior walls on all four sides of the great hall are translucent onyx bound into octagonal shapes by a gridiron of specially finished concrete faced members. The onyx is in varying tones of tan, glowing softly with a warm light. The ceiling of this great room is coffered within flat hollow pyramids containing lighting and air conditioning diffusers.

Directly beneath the stairs leading up to the mezzanine are the stairs connecting the exhibition hall with the research center. The research center is composed of a control desk, a reading room, librarian's and curator's offices, seminar rooms and various work rooms for micro-film, manuscripts, etc. The reading room and curator's offices face a sunken sculpture court.

The control desk is connected by book lift and elevator to the stacks rising in the exhibition hall above and to the stacks below. In addition, there is an underground communication by pneumatic tube for books and papers as well as a passage for staff members to Sterling Memorial Library.

The floor under the research center, with the exception of the mechanical space, is devoted entirely to book storage. Stacks are spaced on a 4'-4" module.

The most striking feature of the structural design of the library is the use of the steel Vierendeel trusses to frame the exhibition hall.

Each facade is one great truss carrying part of the roof loads and its own weight and in turn transferring its loads through bronze-covered ball and socket joints to the four corner columns. Thus only four columns receive all stresses developed in the exterior walls of the building.

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The trusses are 50 feet high; the two for the east and west
facade measure 131 feet in length and the two for the north and south 88 feet
in length. These trusses are composed of tapered steel crosses 8'-8" in
height and width which are prefabricated, then welded together at the time
of erection.

The trusses will be fireproofed in precast special finish
high strength concrete units. These units will be exposed on the interior
of the building. The exterior may be finished in the same manner or may be
faced in marble.

This particular type of truss with the scale and shape of
its members was adopted in order to create a visual harmony of materials and
form with the Gothic and Classical style of the older adjacent buildings.

The entire building will be mechanically ventilated with
heat and cooling by tempered air. Two air conditioning systems will be used
to give the best conditions of temperature and humidity for book storage and
for human occupancy. Book storage areas will be hermetically sealed.

## The Architects

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill also has designed such landmarks
as the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, the headquarters building
of the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, Lever House and the Union Carbide
Building on New York's Park Avenue, the Manufacturers Trust Company all-glass
bank on New York's Fifth Avenue and Connecticut General Insurance Company's
glass and steel headquarters outside Hartford, Conn.

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S.O.M. designed, too, Inland Steel's all-stainless steel headquarters in Chicago; the Reynolds Metals Building in Richmond; Cincinnati's Terrace Hilton, an ultramodern hotel stilted on top of two large stores; the Istanbul Hilton in Turkey and the Banque Lambert in Brussels, which is under construction.

The Builder

George A. Fuller Company has just completed the country's newest art museum, the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute in Utica, New York.

Since its founding 78 years ago, Fuller has attained a position of national leadership in the construction of institutional, monumental and commercial structures. Through its offices in New York, Boston, Washington Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles, Fuller has executed more than $3 billion in construction contracts.

Outstanding national and historic landmarks constructed by Fuller include the Lincoln Memorial, Constitution Hall, U.S. Supreme Court Building, National Archives Building, Arlington Amphitheatre and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Washington National Cathedral. Fuller also is building the United Nations Library, an important addition to the United Nations Headquarters.

In recent years among the important commercial structures erected by the George A. Fuller Company are some of the largest office buildings in the nation: Time & Life Building; Union Carbide Corporation Building; Seagram Building; Corning "Tower of Glass" Building; Lever House; and Mile High Center, Denver.

The company is headed by Lou R. Crandall, chairman, who has been with the firm for 43 years, and Raymond C. Daly, president, who has 30 years' service.

/ / / /

Yale University News Bureau

New Haven, Connecticut
State 7-3131, Ext. 344

Steve Kezerian, Director

#63(P)

For release to MORNING papers of FRIDAY, October 11, 1963

New Haven, Conn., October 10:-- The new Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, a building of unusual design and construction to house famous Yale collections and serve as a major center for scholarly research, will be dedicated by Yale University this Friday (October 11).

Believed to be the largest building in the world devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts, the Beinecke Library already has in it 250,000 volumes and more than one million manuscripts.

With 21.3 miles of shelves, the building has a capacity of 800,000 volumes and provides long-needed research and storage space for the overall Yale Library which has a total of 4,600,000 volumes.

The new building and its endowment are the gift to Yale University of Edwin J. Beinecke, Yale Class of 1907; Frederick W. Beinecke, Class of 1909 at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School; the late Walter Beinecke, Yale Class of 1910; and their families.

The firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill were the architects with Gordon Bunshaft, the partner in charge of design, and David Hughes, the partner in charge of coordination. General contractor was the George A. Fuller Construction Company.

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Concrete, steel, marble, bronze and granite are the materials used in construction, providing the optimum conditions for book preservation while serving as a visible reminder of the heritage they enclose. Marble, granite, and bronze are three of the oldest building materials known to man.

The main section of the library is "windowless." Granite frames hold 250 huge marble slabs that compose the exterior facade. But the translucent character of the marble permits light to enter while shielding the books and manuscripts from harmful effects of direct sunlight. Constant conditions of temperature and humidity in the book storage areas were especially designed for the care of the books.

## The Dedication

The dedication program on Friday is by invitation and guests of honor will be the Beinecke family whose members span three generations.

The program starting at 5:30 P.M. in the main Exhibition Hall, will have James T. Babb, Yale University Librarian presiding. Brief speeches will be given by Edwin J. Beinecke for the donors and by Wilmarth S. Lewis, of Farmington, Conn., who is Senior Fellow of the Yale Corporation.

Herman W. Liebert, Librarian of the Beinecke Library, will accept the keys to the new building, and benediction will be pronounced by the Rev. Amos N. Wilder, of Cambridge, Mass., a Fellow of the Yale Corporation.

The dedication this Friday is the second of three scheduled this fall, marking the completion of the extensive building program commissioned during the administration of the late President of Yale, A. Whitney Griswold. The Kline Geology Laboratory, designed by Philip Johnson, was dedicated this past September 27 and on next November 9 the Art and Architecture building, designed by Paul Rudolph, will be dedicated.

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The Beinecke Library, according to Mr. Liebert, has been
designed to serve as a "working" library to serve scholars and students and
not simply a repository of books.

Books and manuscripts in the new building have been moved
from the Sterling Memorial Library, the University's library headquarters which
is diagonally across the street and connected to the Beinecke building by an
underground tunnel.

The famous Yale collections range in dates from the oldest
documents known to the ancients down to the 20th century, from Tibetan block
books to the maps and letters of the Lewis and Clark expedition, from such
writers as Juvenal, Boccacio, Boswell, and Wordsworth to the more moderns
including Joseph Conrad, Gertrude Stein, Eugene O'Neill, and Sinclair Lewis.

Here in the Beinecke Library are the Gutenberg Bible, about
1455, the first book printed from movable type, and the Bay Psalm Book of 1640,
the first book printed in the American colonies. Far older than both are
Japanese prayer scrolls of the 8th century, believed to be the oldest example
of type-printing in the world.

Mr. Liebert explains that the definition of a "rare book"
or "rare manuscript" is not necessarily limited to its age or monetary value.
A rare book or manuscript is one difficult or impossible to replace or likely
to be of sufficient cultural value to warrant special preservation.

## The Building

The new library is divided into three main parts: the
Exhibition Hall; the work-study areas including the reading room, curators'
offices, a microfilm room, catalogue room, and work areas; and the book storage
vaults.

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Constructed on a 200' x 350' site, the building encloses some 1.7 million cubic feet of which 734,000 are contained in two stories below street level. The building has an area of 88,347 square feet.

The only portion of the building above ground is a 131' x 88' x 58' Exhibition Hall. This is set on four support columns rising above a granite-paved plaza situated in the heart of the Yale campus.

The panels of the Exhibition Hall's side walls measure 8' x 8' and are honed to an 1¼" thickness. They are of Montclair Danby (Vt.) marble.

The interior of the Exhibition Hall, a cathedral-like room with no interior support columns, features a massive six-tier display bookstack with a capacity of 160,000 volumes. This book stack, which is lighted at its outer rim to display the richness of the bindings, is enclosed by a curtain wall of clear plate glass. This allows the books to be visible from any point in the Exhibition Hall and encloses the books in a controlled atmosphere of stable temperature and humidity that is considered best for their preservation. This bookstack measures 60' x 35' x 50'.

The building is entirely air-conditioned and stable conditions of 70° temperature and 50% humidity are maintained throughout all book storage areas. A slightly higher temperature for human comfort is maintained in the curators' offices, conference rooms, and other work areas in the library.

Jaros Baum & Bowles of New York were the mechanical engineers for the building's heating-air condition and electrical systems.

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The Exhibition Hall features a design utilizing steel Vierendeel trusses, which form the walls of the Hall. Each of the four facades is one great truss carrying a part of the roof load and its own weight. These loads, in turn, are transferred through the bronze-covered pin joints to the granite-encased columns. Thus the four columns at the exterior corners of the Exhibition Hall receive most of the stresses developed in the granite, steel and marble exterior walls of the Hall. The building core, at the center of the Exhibition Hall and surrounded by the six-tier bookstack, also takes a part of the roof load.

The Vierendeel trusses of the Exhibition Hall's exterior walls are open web trusses with horizontal and vertical members and joints made rigid but free of diagonal forces. They were composed of pre-fabricated tapered steel crosses -- eight feet, eight inches in height and width -- that were welded together at the time of erection. The steel members were covered with Woodbury (Vt.) granite on the exterior and cast stone on the interior. The octagonal marble "panels" were placed in the open areas of the trusses. Paul Weidlinger of New York was the structural engineer.

## Factors Governing the Library's Design

The library, located near the focal point of activity on the Yale campus, occupies the northeast corner of Wall and High Streets in New Haven. It is directly east of the Sterling Law Buildings, diagonally across from Sterling Memorial Library and on the north side of Wall Street across from Berkeley College. All three of these buildings are of Collegiate Gothic architecture.

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The Beinecke Library now adds a western quadrant to Hewitt Quadrangle, which is composed of the University Dining Hall to the north, and Woolsey and Woodbridge Halls to the east and south. All three of these buildings are of neo-Classical design,

The problem of selecting an appropriate design to fit into this setting posed a major design problem for the architects. To solve it, Mr. Bunshaft selected a formal setting for the library's Exhibition Hall and sunken sculpture court and chose materials that reflected the timelessness of the treasures it housed and that had been employed in the construction of the surrounding buildings.

In explaining other factors that influenced his design, Mr. Bunshaft said:

"The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is a repository for man's writings and drawings covering more than 20 centuries of man's thoughts. Certainly the Yale collection of rare books and manuscripts which is to be housed in this building is one of the great collections of the world, and is certainly one of the great treasures of the United States.

"In the housing of these books and manuscripts there were three principles which determined the design of the building: 1) to provide the necessary protection and environment so that these documents would endure another 2000 years; 2) to create a research center where scholars would have every facility to carry out their research; 3) to dramatize appropriately that this building contains a priceless treasure.

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"We know that we have provided the proper protection against theft and fire, and a controlled environment ideal for book storage. We have achieved a comfortable environment in which scholars may work. And, we hope that we have dramatized the importance of this collection in a building that is in the heart of Yale."

Another feature of the building is the sculpture court. This open court, which is surrounded by the library's reading room on the west and the library's curators' offices and conference rooms on the other three sides, is paved with white Imperial Danby marble. The court and three sculptures are by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

The sculptures are of a pyramid, the sun and a cube standing on end. They are also of Imperial Danby marble.

The "sun" was cut from two pieces of marble and weighs 12 tons, and has a diameter of about nine feet. It is supported by a separate column extending upward from the building's foundation two floors below. It rests in place on a stainless steel pin. The cube, 5' x 5' x 5', weighs four tons and also rests upon a stainless steel pin but requires no separate support column.

Ground was broken for the new library in May, 1961 and it has taken two years and four months to complete.

The interior furnishings include display cases of bronze and glass; brown and black leather upholstered chairs; wood paneling, card catalogues, tables and desks of teak; walls of painted cinder block and plaster, floors of granite, beige carpet and resilient tile, and ceilings of plaster and acoustical tile.

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The incandescent lights in the display cases have special
bulb shields to filter out the infra-red and ultra-violet rays of light that
could be damaging to the books and other materials on display.

Of the special display cases, two are air-conditioned to
hold Yale's Gutenberg Bible and John James Audubon's elephant folio of American
birds.

The control desk in the Beinecke Library, located at court
level one story below the Exhibition Hall, is connected to the six-tier bookstack
of the Hall by book lift and elevator.

In making the gift to Yale of the new Library and its
endowment-- a gift which is not part of the University's Program for the Arts
and Sciences -- the Beineckes asked that the amount of the gift not be disclosed.
Yale is honoring this request.

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#300 -2-

The firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill were the architects, with Gordon Bunshaft the partner in charge of design.

Since its dedication last October 11, the Beinecke Library has attracted visitors from this country and abroad because of its unusual design and construction. The main section of the library is "windowless." Granite frames hold 250 huge marble slabs that compose the exterior facade.

Mr. Babb has reported that both users of rare books and manuscripts and sightseeing visitors have been attracted in large numbers during the first three months after the dedication. In this period, 551 persons registered to use the collections - 410 from Yale and 141 were scholars from elsewhere - an unusually large number.

No exact record has been kept of sightseers but library officials have estimated attendance at between 5,000 and 8,000 during the first 12-week period.

## The Award

In giving the Beinecke Library one of the two First Honor Awards, the jury comment was: "The total design presents with clarity the unique function of the building - to meticulously preserve priceless volumes for highly selective research. The plan is pristinely simple; the interior monumental, and the exterior an elegant statement and dramatization of the fact that the building contains great treasures."

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