The first two unusual library buildings commissioned by Brown in the 1960s from the same architectural firm, this represents another sea change in library design from the previous university library in both style and format. Warner, Burns, Toan & Lund’s seven-story (two completely below ground) monolith is part of the new formalism movement of the early 1960s, perhaps best known in the work of Edward Durell Stone, especially in his American embassy in New Delhi. The building’s concentration of heavier masonry cladding on the upper stories and broad expanses of glass on the lower stories gives the building an odd floating quality. The entrance lets into the middle floor of the building, where circulation, cataloguing, and reference rooms are located; reading rooms and book stacks are above and below. Rockefeller, Class of 1897, was a generous university benefactor.
– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
The Rockefeller Library was dedicated on November 16, 1964. Designed by Warner, Burns, Toan & Lunde, the building, which had been under construction since June of 1962, was planned to house 1,500,000 volumes in the humanities and social sciences, about twice the number present at the time of building, and to provide seating for 1,044 persons in the various reading rooms, studies, and carrels. The building was built by E. Turgeon Construction Company of Providence. In the early planning stages, the new library structure was referred to as the “John Hay Library extension.” The “extension” materialized as a separate and much larger building on Prospect Street separated from the John Hay by College Street (but joined by an underground tunnel), and planned to harmonize with the older library. Architect Danforth W. Toan wrote, “In developing the exterior architectural design, we sought to match the modest monumentality of John Hay by developing a series of paired piers on the building perimeter which incorporate air conditioning risers with structural columns. The projection of these piers, along with the variations in the wall plane and fenestration, produce varying horizontal and vertical rhythms intended to reduce the building’s scale and reflect the interior functions. The cantilevering of the main floor, necessitated by the need for greater area, provides a strong horizontal band which hovers above the undulating terrain of College Hill.” An outside reading area at the rear of the library was named the Chafee Garden, in honor of Zechariah Chafee, Jr. ’07.
David Rockefeller spoke at the dedication on November 15, 1964 of the library named for his father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 1897, “an alumnus whose services to society were characterized by distinction and integrity, and whose relations to the University those of a devoted alumnus.”
Bibliography:
Mitchell, Martha, Encyclopedia Brunoniana, copyright ©1993 by the Brown University Library
Providence: A Citywide Survey, p. 217
–Providence’s Recent Past (2010), a PPS map by Ned Connors.
Last edited March 27, 2025 by Elisabeth Brown
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