The library was used and loved for 6 decades before the TVS Higher Education team was brought on to help update the library for expanded volumes and provide the library with modern technology without compromising on the original architectural aesthetic.

Doubling the library’s size and creating spaces for new media technologies presented an interesting design opportunity on a century old collegiate Gothic quad. The existing building was entirely renovated. Most of the original brick and limestone facades were preserved, including the entire face on the central quad. The vaulted main reading room was restored to its original grandeur. In adding the new wing, the design avoids mere mimicry in a meticulous blending of Gothic and contemporary detail with an uplifting effect of renewal. On the addition’s south façade, limestone is allied with generous glazing and high tech metal sun screening. A former garden is reestablished in the open air as a landscaped, cloistered reading terrace surrounded by glazed reading areas in a reciprocation of controlled natural light. Accented in brick and limestone, the interior renovation and new addition comfortably accommodate group and individual study, equipped throughout with advanced technology. The library was designed in concert with the new student center, creating a corridor of activity where students have access to both buildings around-the-clock.