ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 476 / C &-RL News Motivated for excellence By Geraldine W. Kiefer A rchitectural W riting Consultant Van D ijk, Johnson & Partners Ursuline College’s new Besse Library. G ood architecture ennobles its site and brings out its singular characteristics. It makes a design statement, yet not so stridently that context—the lay of the land and its particular significance for those who traverse it— is overriden. In fact, today’s best designers work for solutions that address con textuality and encourage active, evaluative roles for participants in what may be termed a living theater of architecture. Much contemporary de sign is termed postmodern as opposed to modern— i.e ., the ubiquitous white cube or subdividable ver tical block of the fifties and sixties. What much postmodernism purports, and what the new Ralph M. Besse Library at Ursuline College exemplifies, is not only an opening up of the cube, a dissolving of design according to solids in favor of design accord ing to screens, but a new theatrical sensibility. For the library, with its limestone screen wall and col onnaded open portico at the apex of the campus quadrangle— each a highly calibrated element that both frames vistas and appears to glide freely in space— functions as a proscenium for the crux of academic life. Van Dijk, Johnson & Partners, ar chitects for the library, employed a variety of sub tle design techniques to blend the building reli giously w ith its neighbors and to seat it comfortably within its site. Contextuality was an absolute prerequisite for the library’s active role as presenter and framer. Master planners for the college campus, sited on 115 magnificent acres in Pepper Pike, a suburban community east of Cleveland, van Dijk, Johnson formulated its classic commons-girding design. Ur suline’s quadrangle recalls such hallowed institu tions as Cambridge and Oxford universities in Englan, d and the University of Virginia and Cornell University in the United States. “An acropolis of learning,” chief designer and partner Peter van Dijk termed it, situated on the highest promontory of land overlooking the artificial lake that was cre ated to the south. From 1965 to 1974 the firm de signed Mullen Academic Building, Dauby Science Center and the Matthew J. O’Brien Campus Cen­ ter on the crest of the “acropolis,” and two dormi­ tories diagonally oppposite them across the lake, with a network of brick and stone walkways and low stone retaining walls interconnecting them. The buildings were designed and constructed in what is now known as the “Ursuline Blend” of brick, a buff-colored, nubby textural masonry that has a savvy rusticity about it. Limestone trim and coping, slate window sills and varnished oak doors and portico soffits complete the exterior palette. T h e new lib rary , nestled into the rise that reaches to the north contour of the campus, utilizes the same materials: Ursuline Blend brick for the main building block and the lantern piers that an nounce it from the quadrangle, red oak window and door frames, the limestone entrance wall, slate sills and threshholds. W hile functioning as ele ments of the library grid, the various building components— terrace, portico, entrance hall and the stepped volumes behind, scale themselves se­ curely to their neighbors and continue their care­ fully stepped and opened profiles. Most importantly, the library now provides an apex for the campus quadrangle that it lacked be­ fore, a locus for learning that fulfills the directive expressed by college President Sister M . Kenan that the library be “the heart of the campus.” O ctober 1985 / 477 T h e Sister D o r o th y K a z e l r e fe r e n c e co llec tio n a n d lou n g e, n e a r th e L ib r a r y en tra n ce. The planning process for a separate library facil­ ity began in the late 1970s, when it was evident that two floors in the student center could neither ade­ quately display nor store 6 0,000 volumes, and that an evolving non-print technology would require a comprehensive media center. In addition, A C R L ’s 197 5 S t a n d a r d s f o r C o ll e g e L i b r a r i e s reco m ­ mended a minimum of 112,000 print volumes for a college the size of Ursuline. After detailed study and a 3-year total campus reevaluation, it was de­ termined that a new library with approximately double the amount of space of the existing 11,300- square foot facility was needed. Thanks to success­ ful fund-raising efforts in the community, engi­ n eered by a b lu e -r ib b o n s tee rin g c o m m itte e com posed of lo n g -stan d in g U rsulin e p atron s, (among whom was Ralph M. Besse, who almost singlehandedly raised the funds that built the first buildings on the Pepper Pike campus), the college was able to plan for a building triple the size of the existing library that would incorporate a state of the art media center as an integral component in its functioning. C ritic a l to this fu n ctioning w ere contiguous spaces for administrative services, namely circula­ tion with reserve book control, current and bound periodical referencing, acquisition and cataloging. These procedures are the core of any college li­ brary, particularly one specializing in up-to-the- minute technical data (Ursuline’s bachelor of sci­ ence in nursing program is targeted for registered nurses throughout Cuyahoga County as well as nursing students). However, Ursuline was recently the recipient of a $150,000 Challenge G rant from the National Endowment for the Humanities— matched 3 to 1— for the acquisition of print and non-print materials. W ith new materials coming in (the collection now numbers some 95,000 print volumes alone), and concurrently with new pros­ pects for automation (Ursuline is one of several re­ gional libraries testing a new R egional B ib lio ­ g ra p h ic D a ta b a s e o f the C le v ela n d A rea M etro p o litan L ib r a ry System — C A M L S — this fall), Ursuline’s staff/technical capability had to be geared to the most efficient, smoothly interacting spaces possible. Accordingly, the architects planned from the in­ side out. Books arrive at an existing loading dock at the lower level of the science building, then are transported through a receiving corridor— which can also serve as a temporary holding area— to the elevator in the new building, thence up one floor to the staff entrance corridor which terminates at the acquisitions secretary’s office. 620 square feet of technical services at the core of the staff area pro­ vide four work positions and extensive shelving ca­ pability, and services for O C L C terminals. W ra p p ed arou nd T e c h n ic a l S erv ices in a reversed-L configuration are periodical services and circulation. Responsible for accessing over 500 titles in the library alone (many others are avail­ able through D IA L O G ), the serials librarian and 478 / C &RL News two assistants maintain unobstructed visual con­ trol over the periodicals section and physical con­ trol of current periodicals, which are shelved on both sides of the freestanding unit behind their desk. Just a few steps away via a passage lined with supply cabinets and provided with a niche for truck storage is the circulation area. It is likewise de­ signed for total visual control over its purview, which includes the main entrance, stairway to the basement and second floor, first floor reference and special collections, card catalog and reference librarian. Reserve books are located behind the cir­ culation desk, in full view of students and patrons and accessible directly by the staff. Both the main circulation desk and the media center circulation desk were custom designed for their particular needs, including specialized stor­ age areas, work surfaces including typing areas, and internal bulletin display. Again for secure staff access, the non-print volumes in the media center (programmed for 3,600) are located behind the cir­ culation desk but in full view of library patrons. Facu lty and students enter the media cen ter through its own lounge and reference section which displays current media catalogs and locator guides. Both hardw are, stored in an extensive storage/repair facility behind the circulation desk, and software can be checked out for use in class­ rooms or can be used in the several specialized tech­ nical rooms located in the center itself: TV produc­ tion, editing/duplicating, graphics production and viewing rooms. The main study room, carefully sited to incorporate soft natural light from the north, incorporates student media carrels with VCRs, slide tape machines and audio cassette re­ corder/players. It is the college’s desire that the most current technical systems and software be available to the students and faculty, not just for communications arts study, but to access up-to- the-minute data in the career-related fields serv­ iced by Ursuline’s faculty: nursing, women in man­ agem ent, a rt th e ra p y , m usic business and education. The library’s print holdings— 130,000 at capac­ ity (in the future an additional 100,000 might be stored on compact shelving in 5,000 square feet of program m able space at the basem ent level) — occupy the first and second floors. Bound periodi­ cals and the reference collection are housed on the first, circulating books and the education depart­ ment’s curriculum library, on the second. The ar­ chitects worked closely with their mechanical and electrical engineering consultants, to ensure that the work and research environment be of optimum quality. Lighting was designed perpendicular to the stacks. Nine-cell fluorescent fixtures engineered for maximum coverage and minimum brightness at the source illuminate the stacks to the lowest level. Bi-level switching with up-and-down positioning of the bulbs permits a consistent level of illumina­ tion at all times. Since study carrels and individual and group study rooms at the perimeter of the partition-free stack areas are ringed on the north and east elevations by 6’-4” x 4 ’-8 ” windows with adjustable blinds, energy-efficient low level light­ ing is preferable during the day. A variable volume air conditioning system provides a consistent level of coolness; the amount of air supplied, however, varies according to need, thereby facilitating en­ ergy conservation. Ursuline’s former library had no provisions for lounges. In keeping with their traditional practice of honoring benefactors and prominent religious leaders, the Ursuline nuns programmed three dedi­ catory lounges for the new space, each to reflect in texture, lighting and color the person whose mem­ ory it was deemed so important to share. For the Sister Dorothy Kazel lounge, promi­ nently placed just inside the main entrance, the ar­ chitects and their interior designer had a particu­ larly challenging task. Sister Dorothy, one of the nuns martyred in El Salvador in 1980 while serving with the Cleveland Diocesan Mission Team , was to be memorialized not just with a seating space, but with a living memorial, a new research center for Global Awareness of Peace and Justice Issues. The Kazel collection will assist both scholarly and ac­ tive pursuits in the field of international relations. Peter van D ijk, project architect Paul Westlake J r . , and the firm’s interiors specialist Susan Plachy de­ signed the room with a festive, South American at­ mosphere, in tangerines with accents of yellow and blue-green. Furnishings are classically modern, comfortable, and since they are meant to be used constantly, durable. Gently lit by fluorescent up- lights concealed above a lowered ceiling, the Sister Dorothy lounge has a self-containing presence. Yet its conceptual connection to the rest of the library, as a specialized yet integrated center of learning is stressed by the ingeniously designed book­ shelf/screen wall that establishes its parameters and orients it to the rest of the space. A sculptural solution of interpenetrating cubic planes, volumes and openings similar in feeling to the limestone screen wall whose interior face is visible just outside the windows of the lounge, the bookshelf screen likewise acts as a staging presence as it sets off the books and subtly acquiesces to their importance. The two lounges on the second floor, the Louise E . Mellen Lounge adjacent to and interconnected with the library’s extensive nursing collection, and the Mother Marie Sands Lounge, dedicated to the former General Superior and college president, were exquisitely fine-tuned to be unique character­ izations. Mrs. Mellen’s devoutness and exquisite femininity were expressed in soft lines and delicate colorations. Mother Marie’s prominence, leader­ ship and sensitivity (she loved living things and just a touch of yellow) found form in a room that com­ mands the best panoramic view from the facility. At the same time, in its rich blue furnishings, car­ pet and indirect cove lighting, this main reading lounge unfolds a delicate, self-containing and med- O ctober 1985 / 479 First floor plan o f the Ralph M. Besse L ibrary, Ursuline College, designed by van Dijk, Johnson it Partners, Cleveland. itative presence like an opening flower. Through substantial donations over the years, Ursuline has amassed a fine stamp and rare book collection that are not only research tools, but c a ta ­ lysts for ongoing donations (Ralph Besse, for exam ­ ple, the executive and education benefactor for whom the library is nam ed, has donated his collec­ tion of general non-fiction and river books). As the Ursuline nuns conceived their new library to be the central research center of their campus, it was ap­ propriate that these collections be carefully housed there. Approached via the corridor that accesses the Mother M arie Lounge and continues to an out­ door cedar-decked terrace, the stamp collection emerges as an ongoing display in six inset cases, lit solely by incandescent downlights to preserve deli­ cate color and detail. Likewise incandescent-lit is the stamp room itself which features a custom de­ signed folio display cabin et extending the entire width of the space. Appropriateness to function always is the ulti­ m ate criterion for a building’s success. F or a li­ brary, each space works as it serves to encourage study, reflection and excellence. Although chal­ lenged to vary their solutions for the many special­ ized spaces required in Ursuline’s facility, van Dijk and his team had a unique opportunity in what might be termed its culm inating space, the Sister Gonzaga Haessly Room, named for the D ean of Ursuline from 1932 to 1966. A Board room and re­ ception facility for distinguished guests, graduates and other college honorees, and the repository for Ursuline’s rare books, the Haessly Room was to be the heart of the library. Quiet, distinguished, dis­ tinctly clad and quintessentially form al, yet close to the outside world, it was to personify the intent o f Ursuline’s mission statem ent, to prepare stu­ dents for active, caring roles in the community by- immersion in an academ ic environment activated by form al precept and personal example. Thus, the architects placed the Haessly Room in front of the library proper and opened its French doors to the building’s open-air conversational ter­ race. W ithin the space form ality is clasped w ithin a tight grid that divides, then subdivides each eleva­ tion. T he governing m aterial is oiled red oak exqui­ sitely worked into reverse diam ond patterns on wall cabinets and the custom designed, bronze­ fram ed tables (which can be moved for various seating arrangem ents and functions). T h e rare books, enclosed but visible within protective, orna­ m ental bronze grilles, evoke the excellence by pre­ cept that has motivated Ursuline’s patrons to sup­ port it since its founding in 1871. T h a t the library is not only the heart of the cam ­ pus, but its main artery, is realized in its function as the missing link in the quadrangle’s internal corri­ dor system. Peter van D ijk , long-time advocate for covered con nectors and ped estrian linkages in northern clim ates, took special care to link Mullen Academic Building to Dauby Science Center via the new library, and to make the three-building complex com pletely handicapped accessible on the ground floor level. Initial research revealed but a 4-in ch d ifferen ce in the ground floor levels of D a u b y and M u llen , b u t th e M u llen c o rrid o r 480 / C &R L News dropped down three stairs at its northwest, library access end. Van D ijk eliminated those steps, raised the floor level to that of Dauby and the in-process library, and connected all three buildings, as well as the Haessly Room, by means of a covered en­ trance passage. (A gentle brick ramp leads from this passage to the quadrangle’s sidewalk network.) He effected a spine outwards from which Ursu­ line’s academic buildings branch with a singular rationality and grace. The Ralph M. Besse Library, designed for Ursu­ line College, will in no way be an insular facility. According to library director Juanita Weisel, its raison d ’etre is first to serve Ursuline faculty and students and secondly people from surrounding communities. Housed in a facility that itself is a product of learned and creative excellence, it as­ sumes a stellar role in the Greater Cleveland li­ brary community.■ ■ Baltim ore ’8 6 Alan C. Kay, the Father o f the Personal Computer, to b e them e speaker in Baltimore. E n e r g i e s for Transition” is the theme of ACRL’s Fourth National Conference, April 9 -1 2 , 1986, in Baltimore. On Wednesday, April 9, at 1:00 p.m ., Alan C. Kay will make the first theme presenta­ tion concerning his per­ spective on technological changes, personal com­ puting, and artificial in­ telligence. He will utilize a variety of equipment, including laser disks, to generate and p ro ject messages illustrating his thoughts. The following back­ A lan C. K ay ground information has been supplied by Kay’s office at Apple Computer. “Father of the personal computer” is a title Alan C. Kay disclaims, but many acknowledge that it was Kay’s ideas which succeeded in getting industry’s attention for the personal computer. Much of this attention resulted from work done at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) whose alumni are responsible for much of the cur­ ren t leading-ed ge com puter tech nology. T he Golden Age of PARC occurred between 1971 and 1976, when Xerox gave a blank check to a group of young and talented computer scientists in a crea­ tive think tank environment. It was here that Kay conceived of Dynabook, the powerful lap-sized personal computer of the 1980s that would allow people to draw and write anywhere. Dynabook was the inspiration for Alto, the forerunner of Mac­ intosh. Another particularly celebrated contribu­ tion was S m alltalk , a very high-level o b ject- orien ted p rog ram m in g lan gu age used by non-programmers. He pioneered the use of icons instead of typed words for telling computers what to do next. During his time at PARC, Kay encouraged chil­ dren to visit and work with him, as he pledged never to design a personal computer that couldn’t be used by a child. He explains, “I think that since children appear to have to construct the world in­ side of their heads in order to become human be­ ings, then people must be natural constructors. Computers are the best construction material that we have ever com e up w ith outside our own brains.” The son of a physiologist and artist/musician,