Father Pitt

Tag: Libraries

  • Reference Department

    Reference Department

    One of the chief attractions of the main Carnegie Library is the Reference Department, a huge room with a vaulted ceiling where you can walk in and ask a librarian for help on any topic, and then have librarians scurrying back into the stacks looking for obscure volumes to aid you in your research. Think of it this way: at no cost to you, simply by walking into this room, you can have the experience of being a supervillain with an army of minions.

    Reference Department
    Coffered ceiling

    The coffered ceiling was originally full of skylights—a maintenance headache rendered less necessary by bright modern lighting.

    Imprint of Aldus Manutius

    Mural decorations—lost for years behind paint, found accidentally in 1995, and carefully restored—pay tribute to famous printers of the Renaissance. A report by Marilyn Holt (PDF) describes the murals in detail. Above, the mark of Aldus Manutius, perhaps the greatest of them all.

    Reginaldus Chalderius panel

    Reginaldus Chalderius (or Regnault Chaudière, as he would have been called at home), French printer at the sign of L’homme sauvage.

    Balthasar Moretus

    Balthasar Moretus, Antwerp printer of the middle 1600s.

    Thielman Kerver panel

    Thielman Kerver, Parisian printer at the sign of the Unicorn.

    Noli altum sapere

    Noli altum sapere—“Do not be proud”—say the Estiennes, Parisian printers.

    Vincit prudentia vires

    Jean de la Caille reminds us that prudence beats force—Vincit prudentia vires.

    Simon Vostre panel

    Simon Vostre, early French printer.

    Corner pilaster

    Many of the details in the decorations are picked out in gold leaf.

    Pilaster capital
    Egg-and-dart and dentil moldings
    More moldings
    Looking into the Reference Department
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Going Upstairs in the Library

    Looking up at the ceiling of the stairwell

    Just walking upstairs in the main Carnegie Library is an aesthetic adventure.

    Looking up past the light fixture
    Detail of the ceiling decorations
    Stairwell
    Light fixture
    Base of the light fixture
    Looking at the stairwell from the second-floor corridor
    Second-floor corrido

    The second-floor corridor. At the ends of the corridor are two cherub medallions, identical except for the motto.

    Omne labore

    Omne labore—“Everything with effort.”

    Vivere est cogitary
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

    Vivere est cogitare—“To live is to think,” as Cicero said.

  • Welcome to the Library

    Free to the People

    There is often a greeter standing in the lobby of the main Carnegie Library in Oakland to say “Welcome to the Library” to every patron who walks through the door. But even when the greeter isn’t greeting, the building itself conveys the same message.

    Bronze door
    Lunette
    Vestibule

    Ornate light fixtures hang in the vestibule and lobby.

    Light fixtures
    Lobby
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

  • Carnegie Library, West End Branch

    Carnegie Library, West End branch

    This little library was the second of Carnegie’s branch libraries, after the one in Lawrenceville; like all the original branch libraries, it was designed by Alden & Harlow.

  • Old Woods Run Branch Library

    Woods Run Branch Library

    The city of Allegheny was conquered by Pittsburgh in 1907, but the Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny—the first municipally run public library—was an independent institution until 1956. The main library was in the center of Allegheny, where it still stands (though the library has moved out). It had one branch library, opened here in 1916; the first librarian was Helen R. Langfitt, a 1916 graduate of the Carnegie Library School. This little arts-and-crafts building cannot match the elegance of the Alden & Harlow branch libraries in Pittsburgh, but it was a pleasant ornament to the neighborhood.

    Oblique view

    In 1964, the library moved to a modern building around the corner on Woods Run Avenue—a building that itself became dated and was remodernized in 2006.

  • A Kinder, Gentler Brutalism

    Hillman Library

    Brutalism is the school of modernist architecture that uses raw building materials, especially concrete, as its main aesthetic statement. Father Pitt is not a great lover of the style, but some Brutalist buildings work better than others. The Hillman Library at the University of Pittsburgh has a cool elegance lacking in many other Brutalist buildings. The vertical window bays give us shading that keeps the wall from becoming monotonous, and they also flood the interior with natural light.

    It is very hard to explain who designed this building. Wikipedia says, “Design of Hillman Library was led by Celli-Flynn and Associates who served as coordinating architects. Kuhn, Newcomer & Valentour served as associated architects with Harrison & Abramovitz acting as consulting architects to the university. Dolores Miller and Associates consulted on the interior design, and Keyes Metcalf served as a library consultant.”

    An architect might be able to sort out the nuances of coordinating, associated, and consulting. Harrison & Abramovitz gave us numerous skyscrapers downtown, but Wikipedia adds that “In 1996, architect Celli-Flynn and Associates and Kuhn, Newcomer & Valentour won the Timeless Award for Enduring Design from the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Institute of Architects for its design of Hillman Library.” This suggests that Harrison & Abramovitz really were consultants rather than responsible for the design; perhaps their role was to say, “No, you can’t do that, or it will fall down.”

    Kuhn, Newcomer & Valentour still exists as “DRAW Collective,” based in Mt. Lebanon. Celli-Flynn and Associates was absorbed into Buchart Horn Architects, based in York, but maintaining the staff and office of the Pittsburgh company. It is an interesting commentary on architectural trends that both firms’ recent projects, as displayed on their Web sites, lean toward a timid neoneoclassicism. It does not have the courage to break completely with modernist dogmas and go back to Vitruvius, but neither does it have the daring to invent its own forms and make something new. We get the impression that the clients will be satisfied—but satisfied as in “Yeah, it’s okay,” not satisfied as in “They gave me a masterpiece.”

  • Carnegie Library, Hill District Branch

    Carnegie Library, Hill District Branch

    Another elegant little branch library by Alden & Harlow. Although the branch library moved a short distance away to a larger modern building, this one was fortunately taken over by a mosque and is therefore still loved and kept up.

    Oblique view

  • Carnegie Library, Mount Washington Branch

    One of the little neighborhood libraries designed by Alden & Harlow, this one has a prime location on Grandview Avenue, making it possibly the library with the best view in the world.

  • Carnegie Library, Lawrenceville Branch

    Lawrenceville branch library

    This fine little Renaissance palace, built in 1896, was the first of Carnegie’s branch libraries, and thus arguably the vanguard of the whole idea of branch libraries. It was also the first public library with open stacks, where patrons would just walk to the shelf and pick up the book by themselves. In other libraries—including much of the main Carnegie in Oakland until a few years ago—the patron would ask for the book at the desk, and a librarian would run back to the mysterious stacks and fetch it.

    Like all the original libraries in the Carnegie system, this was designed by Alden & Harlow.

    Carnegie Library Lawrenceville

  • Carnegie Library, Homewood

    Carnegie Library Homewood

    This is the neighborhood library every neighborhood dreams of. It was designed by Alden & Harlow (according to Wikipedia, Howard K. Jones, who worked for the firm, may have been principally responsible for this library), and it is the most palatial of their branch libraries in the city. Most of the others are classical, but this is institutional Gothic. Restored to its original splendor, it is kept immaculately beautiful, and it seems to be busy. Old Pa Pitt promised the librarian he would not capture any patrons in the interior shots—which necessitated some patience, because people would keep walking in front of the woodwork.

    Exterior
    Entrance
    Windows

    The rear windows look out on the side of Holy Rosary Church.

    Children’s room
    War memorial

    A stunningly beautiful Great War memorial for the neighborhood is divided in two halves flanking the entrance.

    War memorial
    Ornament

    An ornament at the peak of the Hamilton Avenue façade.