Northwestern University Science and Engineering Library
An exterior precedent for institutional architecture featuring a high-performance glass curtain wall sheltered by a monumental floating roof canopy.
- What we like about this project
- The roof slab appears impossibly thin and heavy simultaneously, hovering on pin-like columns well above the upper floor glazing.
Materials
- glass
- steel
- stone
- concrete
Visual identifiers
- glass-curtain-wall
- floating-roof-canopy
- exposed-columns
- illuminated-stair-tower
Style tags
- contemporary
- rationalist
- transparent
Visual tags
- institutional
- transparent
- curtain-wall
- glowing
- symmetrical
- Geometry
- Symmetrical orthogonal four-story volume capped by an oversized floating roof plane supported by slender round columns. A glazed stair tower punctuates the left side, breaking the rhythm of the main curtain wall.
- Facade system
- Unitized glass curtain wall with vertical mullions and an open-air colonnade beneath the roof edge.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame with composite floor slabs and exterior slender steel columns supporting a heavy roof slab.
- Spatial scale
- Large multi-story institutional scale, with the heavy roof canopy floating well above the four functional stories.
- Lighting
- Twilight condition; interior artificial lighting creates a warm glow that makes the building read as a luminous lantern against the darkening sky.
- Atmosphere
- Welcoming and academic, animated by interior illumination glowing through expansive glazing at dusk.
- Environmental context
- Campus pedestrian plaza with mature planting, small trees, and a traditional pole light fixture at the front entrance.
- Spatial experience
- Approaching from the pedestrian plaza reveals an open, glowing interior through multi-story glass, establishing a transparent threshold between campus life and the library interior.
- Composition rhythm
- Strict vertical mullion grid across four floors, contrasted by the strong horizontal bands of the base and heavy roof slab.
- Style reading
- Contemporary institutional transparency
- Program
- University library and science center
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- glass, steel, stone, concrete
- Visual identifiers
- glass-curtain-wall, floating-roof-canopy, exposed-columns, illuminated-stair-tower
- Style tags
- contemporary, rationalist, transparent
- Visual tags
- institutional, transparent, curtain-wall, glowing, symmetrical
- Geometry
- Symmetrical orthogonal four-story volume capped by an oversized floating roof plane supported by slender round columns. A glazed stair tower punctuates the left side, breaking the rhythm of the main curtain wall.
- Facade system
- Unitized glass curtain wall with vertical mullions and an open-air colonnade beneath the roof edge.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame with composite floor slabs and exterior slender steel columns supporting a heavy roof slab.
- Spatial scale
- Large multi-story institutional scale, with the heavy roof canopy floating well above the four functional stories.
- Lighting
- Twilight condition; interior artificial lighting creates a warm glow that makes the building read as a luminous lantern against the darkening sky.
- Atmosphere
- Welcoming and academic, animated by interior illumination glowing through expansive glazing at dusk.
- Environmental context
- Campus pedestrian plaza with mature planting, small trees, and a traditional pole light fixture at the front entrance.
- Spatial experience
- Approaching from the pedestrian plaza reveals an open, glowing interior through multi-story glass, establishing a transparent threshold between campus life and the library interior.
- Composition rhythm
- Strict vertical mullion grid across four floors, contrasted by the strong horizontal bands of the base and heavy roof slab.
- Style reading
- Contemporary institutional transparency
- Program
- University library and science center
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture