Posted Apr 9, 2017, 4:39 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2013
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Constructed in 1888-1891, the Fisher (Furness) library served as the main library for the UPenn campus. Frank Furness personally collaborated with Melville Dewey (of Dewey Decimal System fame) to design the layout. When opened, this was considered the most top of the line library found anywhere.
However by the early 20th Century, Furness's unique blend of Victorian architecture was considered dated at best, and at worst outright embarrassing. In the 1920's architect Robert Rodes McGoodwin laid out plans to expand and modernize the library, a project that would have seen the entire structure reclad in the then popular Collegiate Gothic style. The first phase of this project was completed in 1931 in the form of the Ross Galleries addition. No further phases were completed (presumably because of the great Depression)
After World War II, talks began to circulate once again of the library's demolition, and in 1962 the Modernist Van Pelt Library was completed as a replacement facility. However the building escaped demolition and was added to the National Register of historic Places in 1972-with full Historic Landmark status in 1985. Architects Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown were part of a team that oversaw a restoration process that started in 1986.
In 1991, one hundred years after it was completed the newly restored library was rededicated as the Anne & Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library after the project's primary benefactors.
Exterior:
110 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Ross gallery addition:
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Entrance
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Main stairs in all their iron glory:
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
086 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
Furness Library by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
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