University of Virginia: Alderman Library – Charlottesville VA

Description

“The attendance at the University of Virginia had risen to 2,700 students and the accommodations for the library in the rotunda building had become entirely inadequate. The university, accordingly, secured a loan and grant from the P.W.A. and erected the new ‘Alderman Library’ building.

Due to great differences of level on the site, the building is two stories high on the front and five stories in the rear. The basement contains a receiving room and general storage. On the first floor are offices, archives, and stack space. The second floor is occupied by reserve book rooms, rooms for public documents, and stack space. The third floor, which is the main entrance floor on the front, contains the memorial hall, a large general reading room, offices, and stack space.

On the fourth floor are seminar rooms and faculty study rooms.

The building is fireproof throughout. The exterior walls are red brick with stone and wood trim. Heat is supplied from the central heating plant of the university. The project was completed in June 1938 at a construction cost of $868,810 and a project cost of $944,923.”