When
the University's new high-tech
library opened in 1924,
architect Clarence Johnston
called it “the fruition
of years of planning, of
research, of study by many
minds to give the University
a great building.”
Nearly 80 years later, his pithy appraisal also characterizes
a two-and-a-half-year, $63.4 million renovation of the
campus landmark. In January 2002, Walter Library—a
remarkable synthesis of old and new—reopened its
doors to the University community. The many minds—and
skilled hands—involved in this undertaking include
University president Mark Yudof, the board of regents,
University librarians, facilities management officials,
faculty and staff, state legislators, architects, a
general contractor, and workers from nearly 20 companies.
From the project's beginning, those involved worked
to maintain a balance between historical preservation
and modernization. For example, says architect Drew
Bjorklund, all lighting had to be stripped and replaced
with new systems, so project designers scoured old photographs
and documents for clues to the building's original appearance.
“Based on early photographs, we designed fixtures
to complement the originals yet not duplicate them,”
explains Bjorklund. Specialty fixtures were sized and
lamped according to each room's requirements.
That meticulous care and aesthetic is reflected throughout
Walter Library, a restored treasure that exalts the
human spirit.
The first floor
Materials, color, and lighting suffuse the building's
interior with a warm, inviting glow. Even its most expansive
spaces feel intimate and tranquil.
The
public lobby: The
ornamental plaster ceiling
in earth tones of terra
cotta, blue, green,
and beige, accentuated
with gold leaf, complements
the lobby walls of warm-toned
Mankato Travertine limestone
and the Tennessee Pink
marble floors. Deep-hued
Green Alps marble columns
frame the entrance to
the north-south corridor
that leads to the IT
dean's office and to
the ADCS undergraduate
computing lab.Restoration
of the ornamental plaster
ceiling with its octagonal
recessed coffers accounted
for most of the lobby
work. Workers removed
decades-old dust and
soapy film that dulled
the ornate ceiling and
obscured other exquisite
details.
Conrad Schmitt Studios (CSS) of New Berlin, Wisconsin,
painstakingly restored the ceiling to its original beauty.
Over a one-year period, CSS artisans spent more than
18,000 man-hours restoring the library's polychromatic
ceilings and decorative plaster details at the cornice-line.
Wherever possible, workers repaired and repainted original
plaster designs. Certain areas demanded more aggressive
techniques—removal, recasting, and repainting—to
achieve the desired results. Artists sat on scaffolding
for hours at a time carefully applying color to the
ceiling panels with delicate brush strokes. The skillful
restoration makes it nearly impossible to detect panel
“seams” or the sprinkler heads camouflaged
inside plaster details.
Visitors will enjoy a pleasant stroll along the spacious
east-west corridor that connects the main lobby to the
building's entrance on Pleasant Street SE. Crews salvaged
inch-thick rosy-beige stone panels from the original
stack core floors and recycled them as cladding for
the corridor walls. Glossy black marble accents, a fabric-covered
arched white ceiling, and ambient lighting all add a
touch of sleek sophistication to this high-tech zone.
Several DTC facilities—the PowerWall and computer
laboratories for graphic design, graphics and visualization,
and interoperability—are now located where the
first-floor stacks once stood. Entrances to the interoperability
lab and graphics design lab (formerly a library service
area) retain their decorative bronze gate grilles, whose
clever design incorporates fish and owl figures, symbols
of Knowledge and Wisdom. New doors behind the gates
replace the originals.
The
Arthur Upson Room: Off the lobby to the north, a
corridor leads to the Arthur Upson Room. Tucked away
in the building's northeast corner, this quiet retreat
is a memorial to the young poet who wrote lyrics to
“Hail! Minnesota."
The Upson Room opened in February 1925 as a reading
room for undergraduates. The room's dark, opulent furnishings
and ornate interior reflected Upson's taste for Italian
Renaissance furniture and rich decor.
Decades ago, the limestone mantle fireplace, framed
by rich mahogany and cherry woodwork, radiated the warmth
of a crackling fire on chilly winter days. Overhead,
polished oak beams and ceiling panels are adorned with
stenciled and hand-painted designs, including symbols
of the zodiac. CSS artists preserved the original ceiling
artwork and “in-filled” areas of loss. Winona
Lighting restored the room's two wood-and-brass chandeliers,
whose blue, gold, and burnt orange palette accents the
ceiling artwork.
CSS repaired and restored the room's exquisitely painted
wall surface of composition cardboard, which is lightly
embossed to simulate leather and held in place by large
brass buttons. New vinyl composition tile in olive brown
and tan replicated the original British flooring pattern
of dark and light squares, a style popular during the
late 19th century.
Old
reserve reading room: The original north reading
room adjoining the Upson Room is now a spacious Academic
and Distributed Computer Services (ADCS) computer laboratory
open to all University undergraduates. The lab accommodates
about 100 workstations.
Workers built a carpeted, raised sub-floor four inches
over the room's original linotile flooring. Inside this
space they threaded a complex network of data and power
cables. This configuration will give technicians easy
access to the wiring when changes are required.
Oak wainscoting and a splendid decorative plaster ceiling
with honey-colored beams add ambience and charm to this
high-tech space. In areas where the original decorative
scheme had been painted over, workers removed layers
of white paint one at a time to uncover the original
color scheme of warm neutrals and pastels. Artists painstakingly
experimented with blending, glazing, and application
techniques until they achieved a six-color palette that
matched the original in color, tone, value, hue, and
application.
Other areas: The IT dean's office occupies its
refurbished quarters in the library's south wing. The
remainder of the first-floor is used for offices, conference
rooms, and study lounges.
The second floor
Between walls lined with sand-colored Kasota limestone,
two monumental Tennessee marble staircases with turned
marble balustrades ascend to the second floor. At the
top of the stairs, Green Alps marble columns divide
the atrium from the Great Hall, where a massive stone
reference desk once guarded the entrance to the stacks.
A smaller version of that desk, created with panels
salvaged from the original, was moved to its current
location in the atrium. Stone artisans from Europe modified
the panels to fit the new design.
The
Great Hall: A jaw-dropping expanse of five skylights
sweeps across the Great Hall ceiling (three smaller
skylights overlook the atrium).
"Building codes have very strict rules regarding
overhead glass,” says Bjorklund. “From a restoration
standpoint, the preferred choice would have been to
keep the originals, but to meet code compliance, they
had to go. New lay-light panels were crafted to meet
building code requirements and yet maintain the character
of the original glass."
CSS artisans used Glasslam, a clear silicone/epoxy
mixture, to bond patterned art glass to heat-strengthened
glass. Faux caming was bonded to the underside (down
side) of the glass panels, replicating the original
caming patterns.
Ceilings of the Great Hall and atrium needed extensive
plaster repairs and restorative painting. After removing
loose paint and dirt, artisans washed the areas thoroughly
and lightly sanded them to prepare for painting. They
experimented with blending, glazing, and application
techniques on sample boards until they could match the
original look. Finally, they applied tinted primers
and base paint.
To be furnished with soft, cushy chairs, the Great
Hall is a stately yet inviting setting for study, relaxation,
or contemplation. Wall sconces and table lamps provide
task and ambient lighting.
The Great Hall is also the gateway to three magnificent
reading rooms that house Science and Engineering Library
facilities and the Learning Resources Center. Sculptured
marble lunettes crown the doorways leading into the
north and south rooms; their relief figures symbolize
Industry, Agriculture, Science, Law, Power, and Wisdom.
Ancient printers' marks and cameos of notable cultural
and scientific figures are carved into the doorjambs.
North reading room: This spacious room boasts
yet another beautifully restored ceiling. A trompe l'oeil
("fool the eye") technique known as wood graining
creates the illusion of varnished wood trim. The molded
plaster ornamentation received a richly colored glaze
to accent the detail. The room is furnished with large
study tables, carrels, and new library shelving over
an access floor. The reconditioned original oak tables
are fitted with new task lighting and outlets for access
to power and data.
South
reading room: For several decades this former reading
room—same in size as the north reading room—was
closed to the public and used as library office space.
It's now the Learning Resources Center, where students
and faculty access University Libraries' nonbook materials,
primarily audio recordings and videotapes. This collection
covers the scope of University instruction but emphasizes
the humanities and social sciences.
Only the room's shell—its windows, double doors
with oval windows, ornate ceiling, and wainscoted walls—maintains
the feel of a traditional library. Furnishings include
hexagonal carrels and one-person workstations where
students search the Internet and use the library's video
and audio resources.
The ornamental plaster ceiling alternates faux wooden
beams in walnut tones with panels of deep aqua blue.
A decorative painted border in warm pastel hues encircles
the top of the walls. Along the south wall a series
of decorative bronze grilles bearing the library's recurring
owl motif conceals the room's heating system. Like other
utilitarian fixtures throughout the library, they're
designed to please the eye and blend into the decor.
Main
reading room: Measuring 52 feet wide by 200 feet
long, the magnificent main reading room spans the second
floor's east side. Resurrecting the beauty of this room
was an architect's dream.
Here, more than in any other room, the eye is drawn
upward—to the expanse of windows on three sides,
to 16 massive bowl-shaped light fixtures suspended from
the 22-foot-high ceiling, and to the ornate plaster
ceiling itself. A pattern of squares—four recessed
coffers per square—blankets the ceiling like an
elegant heirloom quilt. Rendered in dominant hues of
rose, aqua, antique ivory, and soft green, the ceiling
is accentuated with gold leaf.
Built-in oak bookshelves five feet high line the room's
perimeter. Above the bookshelves a border of stone cladding
adds texture and visual interest. The room's original
wooden tables, which collectively accommodate over 240
people, were removed, sanded, repaired, and reinstalled.
Each table is equipped with new task lighting atop a
wooden base containing data and power connections.
A small, elegant reference consultation room of polished
wood and glass—part of the original decor—graces
the west wall. After extensive research using original
documents and old photos, the project architect designed
a new reference desk, located along the opposite wall,
which incorporates Johnston's original panel designs.
New wing: From the Great Hall, visitors can
enter the new west wing, which houses the Digital Media
Center (DMC). Charged with promoting the effective use
of learning technologies, the DMC supports faculty who
use these technologies to improve teaching and learning.
Facilities include a classroom, audio lab, video editing
area, media center, and offices.
Upper floors
Strictly speaking, Walter Library lacked a third floor
until the new wing was added. The second-floor reading
rooms, Great Hall, and atrium—which stand two stories
tall—wrap around the third-floor addition, which
is roughly one-fourth the size of the other floors.
The area is reserved for library offices and workspaces.
The fourth and fifth floors house the DTC's administrative
office and other digital technology tenants, including
the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute and the Laboratory
for Computational Science and Engineering.
The fourth-floor commons area offers a spectacular
view of the downtown Minneapolis skyline to the west.
Ceiling light fixtures add an art deco flavor to the
space, which is sure to become a favorite gathering
spot for DTC faculty, staff, and visitors. Just off
the commons area are two conference rooms and a spacious
scientific presentation center. The remainder of the
floor contains offices and workstations.
The fifth floor includes a small commons area, a digital
instruction classroom, digital laboratory, offices,
and mechanical areas.
Lower floors
The once-drab basement level underwent an amazing transformation.
Gone are the old typewriter workstations, the cramped
archives area, and the old reserve room.
The Science and Engineering Library's main circulation/reserve
desk area, which occupies the basement core, features
new library stacks and comfortable study areas. Oak
panels, carpeting, and recessed lighting add visual
texture and warmth to the circulation desk area.
The north-south corridor still connects Walter Library
to the University's tunnel system, but a gallery of
high-tech facilities replaces the archives office and
student computer lab along the passageway. DTC facilities
here include a parallel/distributed computing laboratory,
visualization and networking laboratories, a robotics
laboratory, and offices for faculty and students.
The bulk of the Science and Engineering Library's collection
is stored in the building's three underground floors—the
basement and two lower levels. The subbasement consists
of a core section of library stacks and small reading
areas surrounded by a U-shaped ring of mechanical rooms.
The foundation level contains library stacks and reading
areas.
Exterior façade
The
project maintained Walter Library's historic exterior of
Bedford limestone and brick masonry. For the west side,
where the new wing replaces the stack core, architects designed
a stone, brick, and brass exterior that blends beautifully
with the original structure.
A colonnaded portico facing Northrop Mall marks the
building's main entrance. Relief panels—surmounted
over three doorways framed in carved stone—needed
only a light touch-up. Like so many of the building's
architectural details, the sculptured panels are richly
symbolic, here representing various aspects of a liberal
education. The center panel, which portrays elements
from the Seal of the University, is supported by the
youthful figures Light and Wisdom. The right panel features
Greek male and female shapes representing Power, Ambition,
Study, Abundance, Inspiration, and the child Education.
On the left panel, a group of figures—the female
figure Wisdom and male and female figures symbolizing
Geography, History, Inspiration, Work, and Music—tend
to a small child bearing the laurel leaves of Attainment.
The twin decorative bronze pedestal lamps mounted on
the buttresses of the front steps were surveyed for
damage, stripped, and cleaned. To complement the style
of other mall buildings, each lamp received four new
globes, and new brass handrails adorn the ornamental
main doors.
