CONTENTS

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CONTENT

PAGE

INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVE

SCOPE

DISCUSSION
4.1 Constructions
4.2 Architectural types
4.3 Design

5-7
8
9-15

4.4 Third floor

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REFFERENCE

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APPENDIX

1. INTRODUCTION

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The University of California, San Diego Library consists of the Geisel Library
building and the Biomedical Library building. The Geisel Library building contains
materials and services related to: Arts, Area Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Marine
Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. It also contains the Mandeville Special
Collections & Archives, which houses the Dr. Seuss Collection. The Dr. Seuss Collection
contains original drawings, sketches, proofs, notebooks, manuscript drafts, books, audioand videotapes, photographs, and memorabilia. The approximately 8,500 items in the
collection document the full range of Dr. Seuss's creative achievements, beginning in
1919 with his high school activities and ending with his death in 1991.
The Geisel Library building is named in honor of Audrey and Theodor Seuss
Geisel or Dr. Seuss for the generous contributions they have made to the library and their
devotion to improving literacy. The building is featured in the UC San Diego logo and is
the most recognizable building on campus. It is located in the center of the campus with
Library Walk to its south, Thurgood Marshall College to its west, and Earl Warren
College to its east.
The library first opened in 1970. It was simply called the Central Library until a
renovation was completed in 1993, when it was rededicated as the University Library
Building. It was renamed Geisel Library in 1995.The distinctive original building was
designed in the late 1960s by William Pereira.

2. OBJECTIVE
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1. Storage content material, collection contains such original drawings, sketches,

proofs, notebooks, manuscript drafts, books, audio- and videotapes, photographs,
and memorabilia.
2. As a centre of world knowledge and suitable place for search and study.
3. Give good furniture for study spaces, computer labs also individual study space,
and group study rooms.
4. Give many more of inspiration within the great and unique design.

3. SCOPE OF PROJECT

The study is focused on the construction, materials and structure design for Geisel
Library, a library in University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The study will discuss
about the use of materials, design and construction phase during the 1970s. This will help
to differentiate the old time building with modern building in term of architectural design.
In accordance with the objectives of the study, the place of studies was in the area
of 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States. The building is featured in the
UCSD logo and is the most recognizable building on campus. It is located in the center of
the campus with Library Walk to its south, Thurgood Marshall College to its West and
Earl Warren College to its East.
The Geisel Library was an eight-story structure, rising 110 feet above the ground
with two submerged floors and six floors of varying sizes above ground level. The total
area of the library is about 176,000 square feet. In the next chapter will be discussed
about how the design of the building can be done in reality by using suitable methods of
construction and materials used.

4. DISCUSSION
4.1. CONSTRUCTION

In 1957, William Pereira & Associates was commissioned to begin site selection
studies in San Diego County. In June 1965, Pereiras firm was asked to design the main
library for the UCSD campus The library addition, designed by Gunnar Birkerts, was
deliberately designed to be subordinated to the strong, geometrical form of the existing
library. The library, designed in the late 1960's by William Pereira (original report), is an
eight story, concrete structure sited at the head of a canyon near the center of the campus.
The lower two stories form a pedestal for the six story, stepped tower that has become a
visual symbol for Geisel Library. Whatever its metaphorical connotation, its image is
preserved and enhanced by the concept for the addition.
On July 1, 1968, ground was broken for the new library. The building was
completed and the first opened in 1970. It was simply called the Central Library until a
renovation was completed in 1993, when it was rededicated as the University Library
Building. It was renamed "Geisel Library" in 1995. The library addition, designed by
Gunnar Birkerts, was deliberately designed to be subordinated to the strong, geometrical
form of the existing library.
In the tower, Floors 4 through 8 house much of the Library's collection and study
space, while Floors 1 and 2 house service desks and staff work areas. Some of the
austerity of the original building has been lessened by the addition of the coved ceilings,
painted walls, and carpeting throughout levels 1 and 2. The new colour scheme
complements the colour scheme in the addition.
The architect intended future additions to slide underneath the sloped sides and
proceed into the canyon. It is located at a canyon's entrance in the center of the university
campus. But instead, the interior of the building has been changed over the years to the
determinant of the bare design. A 1992 restoration returned private reading stations that
had been lost. Original construction cost $5.4 million.

Executive Architect: William L. Pereira Associates.

Project Architect: Robert A. Thorburn.
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Consultant: Keyes D. Metcalf

General Contractors: Nielsen Construction Company with Swinerton & Walberg, joint
venturers.
Height: Eight levels rising 110 feet above the ground.
Width: The building's widest point is 248 feet at ground level. The widest floor above the
ground is the sixth level which is 210 feet.
Square Feet: 176,000 gross square feet; 112,000 assignable square feet. These figures are
for the original tower.
Construction:
Complete University occupancy took place during September, 1970. Partial
occupancy began in June, 1970, two years after construction began. The first books were
moved into the building on June 29, 1970.
Location:
The Geisel Library is located in the center of the UCSD campus, directly north of
the Price Center. In this location the building is visible to motorists traveling south from
the Sorrento Valley area on Interstate 5. 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, United
States.
Materials:
Construction is reinforced concrete and glass. Overall finish is rough form board
exposed concrete in a horizontal pattern with anodized aluminium window walls
containing 38,000 square feet of plate glass. The building contains 17,000 cubic yards of
concrete. To bear the weight and stress of the cantilevered building, four massive castin
place bents or slope beam columns are anchored in footings containing 1,500 cubic yards
of concrete on each of the four sides of the building. The bents angle upward at 45
degrees to the sixth level and are literally tied to their counterpart across the building at
both the fifth and sixth levels by up to 300 posttensioning rods of 1/4inch diameter high
tensile steel.

Cost:
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Total project, including construction, architect, furniture, equipment and

administration $5,400,000. Construction cost alone $4,400,000. Construction cost per
square foot $25.00.
Renovation of the Existing Building:
The existing building had not been renovated since it was built in the 1960s.
During 1992 the building was functionally updated and the tower, as it is called, was
restored to a floorplan similar to the one originally designed by Pereira which allows for
more reader stations. A new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system was
installed, the elevators were renovated and a third public elevator was added. The book
stacks received additional reinforcement for seismic occurrences.

4.2. ARCHITECTURAL TYPES

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The tower, is of course, a striking and significant architectural form, and its use
for a library has many advantages. In additional, to its visual contribution to the over-all
campus scene, a tower library usually features relatively small floors, useful for housing
subjects. The smaller spaces also avoid the bowling-alley effect which occurs in some of
the huge lines of stacks in other libraries. Since vertical transport by elevator is
inevitable, tower can help cut down the need for extended horizontal movement. If the
natural light desirable, the tower provides an abundance of exterior wall surface for
window. The tower form is not without the advantages. However, unless it is on a
commanding site, it has to be extremely tall to be significant. The small floor can
severely limit both the arrangement and the use of the collection. The spread of the
collection over many floors, even though serviced by elevator inevitably creates a
circulation problem. One overriding consideration is the fact that a tower is not readily
expandable.
The cube or box the tower form is desired unless the floors themselves are
large. From, a design standpoint, this library shape can be extremely simple and elegant.
Furthermore, because the cube can provide the unobstructed floors, the collection can be
efficiently organized into large blocks or section. The existence of fewer floors means
easier access to the books, without depending on mechanical vertical circulation. On the
negative side, however, certain elements must be acknowledged.
To begin with the cube does not by its geometry alone, establish a significant
architectural form and this is particularly importance consideration when the building of a
campus. Also the floors may be large for comfort and may require excessive horizontal
movement on the part of readers.
Disadvantages of this approach include increased building cost, increased library
personnel to administer and oversee the dispersed stacks, and inconvenient relationships
between various portions of the collection.

4.3. THE DESIGN OF GEISEL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN

DIEGO.

The distinctive original building was designed in the late 1960s by William
Pereira to sit at the head of a canyon. William Pereira & Associates prepared a detailed
report in 1969. Considering the location, Pereira originally conceived of a spherical
building resting atop a pedestal, with the structural elements on the inside. After several
drafts of this ball-shaped design, the structural elements were deemed as being too spaceconsuming, and they were moved to the outside of the structure, essentially resulting in
the current "lantern" design. Pereira originally conceived a steel-framed building, but this
was changed to reinforced concrete to save on construction and maintenance costs. This
change of material presented an opportunity for a more sculptural design. It was
envisioned that future additions to the original building would form terraced levels
around the tower base descending into the canyon, the first of which was designed by
Gunnar Birkerts and completed in the early 1990s.
Pereira envisioned that future additions to the original building would form
terraced levels around the tower base descending into the canyon. The tower is a prime
example of brutalist architecture. It rises 8 stories to a height of 110 ft (33.5 m). The four
upper stories of the tower houses collections, individual study space, and group study
rooms.
The Library Addition, designed by Gunnar Birkerts in the early 1990s, was
"deliberately designed to be subordinated to the strong, geometrical form of the existing
library." Within its two subterranean levels are the other library sections as well as study
spaces and computer labs.

The building occupies a fascinating nexus between brutalism and futurism that its
architect, William Pereira, intrepidly pursued throughout his career. With its strong
concrete piers and hovering glassy enclosures, the library beautifully occupies an
ambiguous state between massiveness and levitation, as if the upper stories have only just
been set into their base and can be lifted back out at any moment. The tension between
these two conditions gives the library an otherworldly appearance and provides a startling
statement about the generative and imaginative power of the architect.

While he is often stylized as one of the more under-appreciated shapers of 20th

century American architecture, Pereira enjoyed tremendous influence throughout the
United States in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1965, he was awarded the commission to build
the library at UCSD due in part to his impressive history of eye-catching and inventive
designs. The building was to be located at geometric center of the San Diego campus at
the crest of a small canyon, arguably the universitys most prominent piece of real estate.
The design needed to be a visually robust statement worthy of the location, and Pereira
seemed to be the right man for the job.
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To develop the schematic design for the library, Pereira analysed and categorized
dozens of university libraries by their massing, circulation, and programmatic
arrangements. He theorized about which forms were more effective than others at
providing certain functions that he valued, such as daylight in the stacks, the ability to
browse the shelves, and the potential for future expansion.
Using rudimentary diagrams as the basis of his design, he theorized that partially
submerging the library would allow maximum potential for expansion and would bury
the elements of the library that were not necessary above ground. For the aboveground
portion, he wanted access to emanate from a singular point at the ground level, with a
central core connecting the different floors. The most logical shape for a library, he
concluded, would therefore be a sphere, which could maximize daylight to the floors,
provide a variety of flexible floor arrangements, and maintain an ideal central circulation
system. Even though the spherical exterior was ultimately abandoned for this project,
Periera preserved the underlying concept of a large middle floor with tapered, smaller
floors below and above.

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The resulting building is an eight-story structure with two submerged floors and
six floors of varying sizes above ground level. The widest of the above ground levels
occurs at the sixth floor, which is over two hundred feet wide. A solid core containing the
stairs, elevators, and mechanical shafts runs throughout the building. While the main
level is considered the first submerged level, the experiential center of the building is
immediately above it at the forum level, where the building is at its thinnest and the
massive overhangs of the floors above cast a heavy shadow over the outdoor plaza.

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The tapered cantilevers above the plaza are supported by a simple but ingenious
structural system consisting of sixteen massive concrete piers that rise out of the forum
level and branch outward at 45-degree angles. They extend past the full width of the sixth
floor and bridge the jagged edges of the enclosed spaces with a continuous, diagonal
motion that meets the floor plates at their bottom edge. To prevent them from buckling
outward under the stress transferred to them by the floors, each pier is connected to its
opposite by over three hundred quarter-inch steel tie rods that counteract the gravitational
forces.

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At each aboveground level, giant sheets of plate glass coated in anodized

aluminium provide light to the reading spaces and stacks within. The treatment of the
windows allows them to reflect and sometimes blend in perfectly with the sky behind it.
The colour of the glass oscillates between dull greys, vibrant blues, and fiery yellows
depending on the weather and time of day, creating a dynamic and ever-changing
appearance. The treatment also allows the vast expanses of glass38,000 square feet in
allto dematerialize into the sky, intensifying the levitating effect created by the
unconventional configuration of the building.
As an icon of brutalism, the library has at times been subjected to the vitriolic
criticism so commonly associated with the movement, even being named to a Reuters
list of the Top 10 Ugly Buildings to Visit. [1] However, while it seems obvious that the
building belongs squarely within the brutalist tradition, the original design actually called
for a modernist construction made entirely out of steel and glass. While this seems
unconscionable given the severe character of the existing building, it wasnt until costcutting measures were introduced that the structure was re-designed with concrete and relocated to the outside of the building. The success of the articulate brutalist language
present in the current design, which incorporates Breuer-like flares at the bases of the
piers and an intricate lattice system on the underside of the floor plates, reveals a
remarkable material and syntactic versatility on the part of the architect.

14

Although the project may be misunderstood, for the vast majority of the UCSD
community, the library is a cherished icon and the symbol of the campus. It is featured
prominently on university recruiting materials, and was even briefly incorporated into the
universitys logo. In 1995, the library was renamed in honour of Audrey Geisel and
Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, following a $20 million gift from
their estate and the contents of their archives. And while the library may resemble
nothing of colourful, lyrical architecture of the Who Houses, Pereiras design expresses
the same imaginative impulse that made so many people fall in love with the librarys
new namesake.

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4.4. THIRD FLOOR

One unusual feature of the library is that the lower levels are numbered 1 and 2,
and the upper floors numbered 4 through 8. This has given rise to several fanciful
explanations for why the third floor is apparently sealed off and not accessible from
elevators or steps.
One of the more popular stories is that the building's design had not taken into
account the eventual weight of books in the library, so the third floor has of necessity
been left empty. This is a common urban legend, associated at different times with many
other university libraries. There are many urban legends associated with the building.
In reality, the "missing" third floor is actually the open/outside forum. There is no
other third floor, blocked off or otherwise. It is simply reinforced concrete and an
emergency exit that helps students from the 4-8 floors get out without having to go to the
second floor.
The "third floor" is actually two separate levels. The third floor landings in the
public stairwells open to the concrete platform outside the library which was originally
intended to be used for sculpture displays, acoustic music, impromptu outdoor
conversations, an open public meeting area and poetry readings. Due to potential theft of
library materials and the risks attributed to the potential theft of UCSD's rare private
collections of literature and art, the doors to third floor were protected to be only used in
case of emergencies or for building personnel to conduct transfer of equipment to the
central core directly, so as not to disrupt library operations. The "second" third floor's
landing is numbered as floor "3.5" and consists of utility connections and wiring to the
upper levels. There are no access-ways beyond the stairwell doors of floor 3.5, they are
locked utility rooms, in essence for maintenance and repair. The doors to the 3rd floor
open outwards from the stairwells while the 3.5 floor doors open inwards towards the
central core. The Central Forum, the 3rd floor, was originally intended to be a 'formal'
area of the library, but outside the interior so as not to disturb library patrons or library
operations.
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5. REFFERENCE
1. Dr. La Jolla, Library Floor Plans from
http://libraries.ucsd.edu/directions/floor-plans.html on 26/3/15.
2. ArchDaily, AD Classics: Geisel Library / William L. Pereira & Associates
from http://www.archdaily.com/566563/ad-classics-geisel-library-william-lpereira-and-associates/ on 26/3/15.
3. San diego, California,USA by William Pererira from
http://architectuul.com/architecture/geisel-library on 25/3/15.
4. University of California Geisel Library from
http://www.docomomous.org/register/fiche/university_california_geisel_librar
y on 26/03/15.
5. Compiled by Barbara Henderson and Charles (Bud) Stem from
http://web.archive.org/web/20070707102135/http://libraries.ucsd.edu/services
/legends.htm#third on 25/3/15
6. Geisel Library, University of California San Diego from
http://architecturerevived.blogspot.com/2013/01/geisellibraryuniversityofcalif
ornia.html on 25/3/15.

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6. APPENDIX

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