Yales Beinecke Library Restored | 2016-09-01 | Architectural Record

2016/09/03 15:05

Yales Beinecke Library Restored

Yales Beinecke library, designed by Gordon Bunshaft and completed in 1963, was fully revamped by
HBRA Architects to protect its rare book collection.
Photo Michael Marsland/Yale University

September 1, 2016
Fred A. Bernstein

HBRA Architects
New Haven, Connecticut

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Yales Beinecke Library Restored | 2016-09-01 | Architectural Record

2016/09/03 15:05

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University,

designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is a
modernist masterpiece. Its rectangular volume is enclosed in sheets of
marble, thin enough (at 138") to transmit light. That means the
interior of the building glows by day. But it also posed a major
challenge, says Bill Mahalko, who, as project architect for Chicagos
HBRA Architects, oversaw a 16-month, $70 million renovation of the
building. New Havens Newman Architects was architect of record.
The thermal qualities of the marble are similar to those of single-pane
glass, says Mahalko. Its not a good insulator. In cold weather,
condensation formed inside the building, which houses some of the
worlds most precious volumesincluding a Gutenberg Bible.
When the building reopens on September 6, it will look the same on the
outside as it did when it was completed in 1963. But its mechanical
systems have been entirely revamped, solving the condensation
problem and many others. Bronze display cases on the main level were
sealed and fitted with environmental controls. (Previously, ambient air
passed right through the cases.)
The architects restored the librarys dramatic book stack (a six-story
glass volume within the larger volume) and reconfigured the
administrative spaces below the buildings plaza. An Isamu Noguchi
sculpture garden, sunk into that plaza, has been returned to its original
condition.
The building already contained two classrooms, below grade but visible
from much of its interior. It now contains two more, designed by
Mahalko to blend in with Bunshafts architecture. One of the
classrooms houses an antique printing press and other equipment,
allowing students to explore the physical properties of books.
HBRA was led for many years by Thomas Beeby (now the firms
chairman emeritus), whose best-known building is the aggressively
Postmodernist Harold Washington Library in Chicago. The firms
ground-up projects generally hew to traditional styles, but in the
restoration area, we do a lot of modernist work, Mahalko says.
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Yales Beinecke Library Restored | 2016-09-01 | Architectural Record

2016/09/03 15:05

The firm began working on the Beinecke library back when Beeby was
dean of the Yale School of Architecture (1985 to 1991), completing a
number of small projects culminating in the recent commission.
Beinecke library director Edwin Schroeder said, The renovation
ensures that the Beinecke library will remain a world-class center for
teaching, research, and scholarship for decades to come.

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