University of Arkansas: Vol Walker Hall (Library) - Fayetteville AR

City:: Fayetteville, AR
Site Type:: Education and Health, Schools, Colleges and Universities
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
Designer:: John Milner Associates Inc. - Architect

Description

"Before construction of this new building, the library of the University of Arkansas was housed in the nonfireproof administration building. The new structure has a capacity of 265,000 volumes and furnishes study desks for approximately 600 students. In addition, there are cubicles in the stack room where research work can be carried on.

The basement has a museum across the entire front of the building, including work space, receiving, storage, and utility rooms. On the first floor are browsing and research rooms, offices, and seminar rooms. The main reading room extends the full length of the building on the second floor and there are also on this floor catalog and delivery rooms and offices.

The structure is fireproof, with exterior walls faced with stone. It was completed during 1935 at a construction cost of $434,590 and a project cost of $464,753."
(Short and Brown)

"Vol Walker Hall, originally Vol Walker Library was the library on the University of Arkansas campus. Modeled after Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester, the University of Arkansas obtained Public Works Administration funding to build the building in the Classic Revival form. The building has also housed the School of Architecture since the construction of Mullins Library in 1968."
(Wikipedia)

Source notes

C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. "Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration." (1939). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Arkansas_Campus_Historic_District