From Fire to Farce

In the mid-1970s, the Royal Library of the Netherlands sent a delegation to the United States with a goal to witness "one of the five most distinguished libraries in the world." They were here to see the IU Main Library. \nNot everyone agrees with the Netherlanders' assessment of the IU Library. It is a building christened by many names: The Floating Wheat Thin, The Borg Cube, Uncle Scrooge's Bank Vault. But the library would stand out on the IU campus by any name. It towers over the tree-filled Arboretum, over Jordan Street and over 10th Street.\nIt is, by any estimation, a big building. Comprised of three parts -- the 12-story graduate library, the five-story undergraduate library and the general facilities portion of the building, IU's Main Library holds three million volumes across an estimated 54 miles of shelf space. It was the biggest library at a major college in the country at the time of its construction. That was in 1970, and it still ranks as one of the nation's largest.\nBy 1962, the Library Review and Planning Committee envisioned the direction of the new library. \n"The architect should be under no obligation to reproduce the architectural style of other buildings on the campus," states their 1962 Interim Report. "On the contrary, a new departure would be most appropriate."\n They chose the New York firm of Eggers and Higgins -- known on the IU campus for the Lilly Library and the Fine Arts building. \nFour designs were submitted for consideration, with the names "Limestone Labyrinth," the "Towers of Silence," "Solomon's Temple" and "Unnamed Design Drawing." \nIU went with the "Towers of Silence."\nThere are 1,345 limestone panels decorating the library's face, connected to a concrete frame. The Indiana Limestone Institute claims that this was the first-ever application of the technique on such a large scale. Some claim that the cut panels are made to represent a limestone quarry, making the library a giant tribute to Southern Indiana's native industry. Others assert that the rough edged library is meant to look like a stack of books.\nAn inspiring image, either way. But perhaps the most apt of all images is that of the suspended vault. IU has seen two main libraries consumed by fire. The first time was in 1854. In response, angry students gathered by torchlight to burn the effigy of a suspected arsonist. The second was more recent, in 1969, when the library was set aflame twice.\nAnd though no perpetrator was ever satisfactorily named, initial reports feared arson, a reasonable fear at the time, when libraries on campuses across the United States were frequently targets of protest. \nPerhaps the IU Main Library reflects the turbulence of that shattered time. Looking out the windows of the main floor reference wing toward 10th Street, the Library's defenses become apparent. It stands high above the ground, raised upon stone steps, surrounded in some places by a trench. All its windows are above the level of the ground.\nInside, the graduate and undergraduate stacks are separated from the main entrances. Books are stored above the main floor, the majority in a windowless space.\nIn the event of any threat, it is easy to imagine the ease with which the library stacks could be sealed off for protection. It towers in the sky like a magnificent limestone vault, windowless and protective.\nIt towers over the site of the old stadium, where the Arboretum now stands.\nThe stadium's memory lives there now, in those gently sloping gardens in front of the Library. When Herman B Wells converted the stadium into the beautiful space which extends beneath the Library, he insured that the stadium would not be forgotten. It lives in ruins within the Arboretum.\nIts old entrance stands on the west edge, by Woodlawn field. At the southwest and northwest edges are the stadium's old flagpoles. The squat limestone building on the southwest side is the stadium's old concession stand. Within that space Herman B Wells oversaw the planting of trees from all over the world, to represent IU's diversity.\nAbove the Arboretum and the stadium ruins stands the Main Library, its strong angles and massive size tempered by the Arboretum's warmth. It is especially beautiful at night, when the Library's softly lit sides can be seen below, reflected in the pond.\nMany universities, forced by financial or spacial concerns, have constructed separate libraries for their undergraduate and graduate collections, forcing student movement. IU's main library includes both into its design, separating them with a spacious entranceway, which is designed to handle 20,000 entrances per day.\nContrary to rumor, the Main Library is not sinking and the architect did account for the weight of the books. In truth, the library sits higher on its site than was originally planned.\n"Five feet below the Bloomington campus is a 330 million-year-old, ninety-four foot thick layer of limestone," said IU architect Robert Meadows. \n"When the library was constructed, the upper layer of this rock was found to be harder than expected. Rather than blast, we raised the lowest level of the building a number of feet."\nFor more information or to request a building in a future column, feel free to e-mail me at mdemo@indiana.edu.