STAUFFER LIBRARY

RESONANT CHORD

A competition-winning scheme demonstrates a way to construct a contemporary stone building for a precast budget.

ROTUNDA

A rotunda at the building’s major entry establishes an iconic image and focal point for the library, visible from up and down University Avenue at the heart of the Queen’s University campus.

FIREPLACE ROOM

Commanding the upper floor of the rotunda is an octagonal fireplace room, one of a series of distinct reading rooms organized at the perimeter of the central ‘book building,’ where good light, views to the campus outside, and a quiet repose away from the library’s main stairway achieve a sense of calm that encourages scholarly pursuits.

LIGHT-FILLED SPINE

A light-filled vertical spine organizes the circulation system throughout, while also bringing light to the center of the deep floor plate. This linear atrium space is ringed with carrels enabling students to work at individual perches while occasionally taking breaks to ‘check out’ their colleagues. It is a place to study, but also to hang out; to see and be seen.