HYDE PARK — The University of Chicago’s Crerar Library is losing some of its stark Brutalist design as it is converted into a computer science lab.
Construction is expected to start in June to cut new windows into the long stretches of smooth limestone that defined the Brutalism design by Stubbins Associates for the library at 5730 S. Ellis Ave.
Professor Michael Franklin, chairman of the department of computer science, said the renovations will attract people to build a community around crucial technologies.
“We are building a modern space that invites and fosters collaboration," Franklin said. "Computing is increasingly impacting all aspects of our lives and data science is becoming central to a growing number of disciplines."
Nearly 800,000 of the approximately 1.4 million volumes in the library’s collection have been moved out as the 74,000 square feet on the second and third floors of the library are converted into the new home for the computer science department and the Computation Institute.
Completed in 1984, the library was built during two decades on campus when Brutalism, with its heavy, geometric forms and raw stone or concrete facades, was en vogue. The style worked well for laboratories and libraries like Crerar and Regenstein on campus, but lacks a lot of the natural light that contemporary architects are looking for when asked to design areas for collaboration.
Executive Vice Provost Sian Beilock said the renovation is to create a more inviting place that brings students, faculty and staff together.
“We’ve planned this adaptive reuse project so that the entire campus can benefit from the changes at the Crerar Library,” Beilock said.
The renovations will cut new holes into the third floor walls for new windows.
The entryway will add a small cafe. [Courtesy of the University of Chicago]
New skylights are also planned, and an area on the first floor that already gets a lot of light through skylights will be converted into a study area next to the remaining library collection.
A new café is also planned for the first floor, but an operator has not yet been announced.
The project is expected to be completed in June 2018.
The renovation splits up what was once one of the largest private collections of books on science and medicine in the world.
John Crerar, a wealthy founder of a railroad supply firm, gave money from his estate upon his death in 1889 to established a $2.6 million endowment for the library and to keep the its works available for the public.
The library, whose collection boasted 27,000 rare volumes, merged with the University of Chicago in 1981 on the condition that its collections remain free and open to the public. The collections have grown over the years to include the collection of surgeon Nicholas Senn, for whom Senn High School is named, and the medical and scientific texts once held by the Newberry Library.
The second and third floors will be renovated as the new home of the computer science department. [Courtesy of the University of Chicago]
