Washington University in St. Louis, John M. Olin Library

Project Details

Project Description

Opened in 1962, Olin Library is a campus crossroads where the University community connects daily through study, research, collaboration, and chance encounter. With thousands of people passing through the Library daily, it is one of the most visited buildings on campus. In the Spring of 2018, the Olin Library Transformation project was completed, balancing the building’s modernist heritage with the changing dynamic emblematic of academic libraries today.

The Library remained open throughout the 18-month phased construction. The design was based on a 2013 Master Plan which called for the renovation of 27,000 sf of the building’s 183,000 sf and for a 19,000 sf expansion. The expansion was accomplished without increasing the building’s footprint by excavating for two new floors under the existing building. These floors house new initiatives for the library –storage for over 50% of the University’s special collections previously kept off-campus, the Exploration Center dedicated to global research and travel, and instructional spaces supporting crossdisciplinary University programming and research.

A new glass structure, inserted within the building’s existing interior atrium, links four floors with exhibition, study, and expanded café spaces. A new interior street through the middle of the Library connects the original south entrance with a new north entrance, providing the campus a new connective link. Running along this new street is a 75’-long gallery for changing exhibitions that highlight the Library’s unique special collections, which include the Library’s July 12th 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence.