Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego, 1969, William L. Pereira & Associates, La Jolla, California
In 1960 the regents of the University of California approved the start of construction of a new and seventh campus of the California system on about 1100 acres of land quite near the Scripps Institute of Oceanography on the coast of the Pacific. It was the start of what became the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), today a leader in teaching and research.
In the next few decades, the university organized its undergraduate education into residential clusters, the first coming in 1964 called Revelle College. As the campus took shape, UCSD’s second chancellor, the well-respected historian of the British Empire, John S. Galbraith, decided that it was time to create a main library for the school’s growing collection, and intended it to be one of the great libraries of the UC system.[1]In 1965, he formed a committee that determined the library would sit at the center of the campus at the top of a small canyon, and sought an architect who could produce a visually robust structure as the university’s centerpiece.[2]They ultimately chose William B. Pereira, an often overlooked yet immensely influential American architect of the 1960s and 1970s, known for his inventive, geometric designs and stylistic ties to futurist and brutalist architecture.[3]The library opened to the public in 1969, and supported the university’s growing collection and student population until 1990, when a two-story expansion was added.[4]Formerly known as the Central Library, the building was renamed the Geisel Library in December 1995 in honor of Audrey Geisel and Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) for their generous donations to the university. to house the Geisel papers, and for the couple’s overall contribution to the literary arts.[5]
From the exterior, the Geisel Library resembles something out of a 1960s sci-fi movie, a style sometimes called “googie.” Its heavy concrete piers and contrastingly thin glass walls make the building appear both massive and weightless at the same time, like a hovering spacecraft.[6]To design the interior layout, Pereira researched several university libraries’ massing, circulation, and programmatic arrangements, and evaluated the effectiveness of their organization of space, use of daylight, and potential for future expansion.[7]He decided to submerge two of the library’s floors in order to leave more space open for later expansion projects, and concluded that a sphere-like shape, with a large middle floor and smaller ones above and below it, was the ideal form to provide optimum sunlight and ideal circulation throughout the building.[8]He achieved this form by using tapered cantilevers that are supported by 16 concrete piers rooted in the ground and branch dramatically outward at 45-degree angles. There is only one main entrance to the building that is found on the ground level.[9]This leads the user directly to a central core of the building, which contains stairs, elevators and mechanical shafts that give access to the other seven floors.[10]Each floor aboveground is bordered by aluminum-coated glass windows that provide light to the reading areas and bookshelves on the inside of the library, and reflect the sky’s natural color on the outside.[11]The combination of the building’s main elements – challenging shape, use of contrasting materials, and mirrored windows – accentuates its levitating effect and unique, otherworldly quality.
The Geisel Library is regarded as a particularly distinctive icon not only of the “googie” futuristic style of the period, but more especially of a particular style of architecture that has come to be known as “brutalist.” Here was the development of a modernist architectural movement of the 1960s established originally in the 1950s by Le Corbusier with his use of béton brut, or “raw concrete.”[12]The movement was characterized by its emphasis on exposed material, massive forms, hardness, repeated angles, and the severely functional over the aesthetic.[13]The style and movement were criticized for ugliness and, in fact, the Geisel Library has been included on “World’s Ugliest Buildings” lists more than once.[14][15]Despite outward appearances, it was a vernacular used in municipal buildings and even churches until at least 1975; and Geisel was in fact only one of many brutalist-style libraries that dotted the campuses of colleges across the nation, such as Northwestern, Chicago, and the University of Massachusetts.
Today, UCSD has expanded beyond its original 1000 acres or so, and is host to 20 research units – from engineering and energy to conflict resolution and health care; and today even includes the Scripps Oceanography Institution itself. In 2020, the university opened its seventh residential college. At the center proudly stands Geisel, an enduring structure of the 1960s, memorable to this day.
SOURCES
[1]Barbara T. Gray, “Central Library, University of California, San Diego.” UCSD Libraries. 17.
[2]Gray, “Central Library,” 17.
[3]David Langdon, “AD Classics: Geisel Library / William L. Pereira & Associates.” ArchDaily.
[4]Pat Jacoby, “UCSD marks rededication of Central Library today with official visit of UC President Jack Peltason.” UC San Diego News Release.
[5]“About the Geisel Library Building.” UC San Diego Library Home Page.
[6]Langdon, “AD Classics: Geisel.”
[7]Langdon, “AD Classics: Geisel.”
[8]Langdon, “AD Classics: Geisel.”
[9]Langdon, “AD Classics: Geisel.”
[10]Langdon, “AD Classics: Geisel.”
[11]Langdon, “AD Classics: Geisel.”
[12]“Brutalist Architecture.” Historic England.
[13]“Brutalist Architecture.” Historic England.
[14]Paul Casciato, “Travel Picks: Top 10 “Ugly” Buildings to Visit.” Reuters.
[15]“Are These Landmarks the World’s Ugliest Buildings?” MSN.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“About the Geisel Library Building.” UC San Diego Library Home Page. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://library.ucsd.edu/about/geisel-building.html.
“Are These Landmarks the World’s Ugliest Buildings?” MSN. March 7, 2017. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/photos/are-these-landmarks-the-worlds-ugliest-buildings/ss-BByQeUn#image=24.
“Brutalist Architecture.” Historic England. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/womens-history/glossary/a-z/brutalist-architecture/.
Casciato, Paul. “Travel Picks: Top 10 “Ugly” Buildings to Visit.” Reuters. May 04, 2012. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-travel-picks-top-10-ugly-buildings-to/travel-picks-top-10-ugly-buildings-to-visit-idUSTRE84314A20120504?utm_medium=website&utm_source=archdaily.com.
Gray, Barbara T. “Central Library, University of California, San Diego.” UCSD Libraries. William L. Pereira and Associates. August 1969. Accessed 13 December 2018. https://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/DigitalArchives/z679_2u54w7_1969/z679_2_u54-w7-1969.pdf.
“History.” Scripps Institution of Oceanography. October 10, 2017. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://scripps.ucsd.edu/about/history.
Jacoby, Pat. “UCSD marks rededication of Central Library today with official visit of UC President Jack Peltason.” UC San Diego News Release. University of California, San Diego. University Archives. 24 February 1993. Accessed 13 December 2018. https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb5803359r/_2.pdf.
Langdon, David. “AD Classics: Geisel Library / William L. Pereira & Associates.” ArchDaily. November 11, 2014. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://www.archdaily.com/566563/ad-classics-geisel-library-william-l-pereira-and-associates.
“Who We Are.” UC San Diego Library Home Page. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://library.ucsd.edu/about/geisel-building.html.