Reading Room
The libraries’ reading room is located just inside the Michigan Avenue entrance of the Museum, to the south of the grand staircase.
The original Ryerson Library was comprised solely of the Franke Reading Room. Design in the 1880s by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the Franke Reading Room was built at the site of the building’s original courtyard.
Elmer Garnsey designed the interior’s decorative scheme and Louis Millet designed the central skylight. Both the interior and the stained glass ceiling fixture have been restored during the 1990s by the architect Johh Vinci, who was also responsible for work done on the Chicago College of Performing Arts.
Included in the design is the inscription of significant writers in art and architecture on entablatures that circle the reading room. Throughout the space are artworks from the Art Institute's permanent collection. In alcoves surrounding reader workspace are shelves of reference books, indexes and select current periodicals.
Read more about this topic: Ryerson & Burnham Libraries
Famous quotes containing the words reading and/or room:
“After reading Howitt’s account of the Australian gold-diggings one evening,... I asked myself why I might not be washing some gold daily, though it were only the finest particles,—why I might not sink a shaft down to the gold within me, and work that mine.... At any rate, I might pursue some path, however solitary and narrow and crooked, in which I could walk with love and reverence.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The host, the housekeeper, it is
who fails you. He had forgotten
to make room for you at the hearth
or set a place for you at the table
or leave the doors unlocked for you.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)