Related Projects
Area
76,000 sf
Certification
LEED
In the Media
12 of America’s Most Magical College Libraries, Takepart Magazine
Design Profile, Context Magazine
Library Design Showcase, American Libraries
A Grand Renovation Preserves Tradition, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Award for Design Excellence
AIA Pennsylvania
Some of the collection is moved to long-term storage facilities so that new seminar rooms, group study rooms, computer facilities, a humanities forum and a café are added. To accommodate the operation of these facilities and improve efficiency, a new stair/elevator/toilet core becomes the primary vertical path through the historic building.
The original building, the Rotunda, was designed in an American Victorian style by Addison Hutton. A much larger addition, designed in the Collegiate Gothic style, was constructed in 1927.
Linderman Library
Lehigh University
Originally built in 1878 and expanded in 1927, Linderman Library is the central historic library of Lehigh University. Now primarily serving humanities and arts programs throughout the University, the library was in need of major renovations that would transform it from a beloved repository into an intellectual center on campus.
The renovations address three integrated issues: the insertion of technical systems in a building that was never designed to house them, the placement of new programmatic elements to support the making of an intellectual center, and the spatial reintegration of the 1928 lobby with the 1878 rotunda and stack floors.
Primary new technical components include ventilation and air conditioning systems as well as smoke exhaust for multi-level spaces. A new structural deck and plenum space is on the top floor of the building to provide better circulation and ‘attic’ space for the placement of large ductwork and smoke exhaust systems. In addition, new sprinkler piping and teledata wiring is installed throughout the facility, including in places where incorporation of such systems must be handled with great care: historic, decorative plaster ceilings and very low head height stack floors.