The Harold Washington Library Center is the central library for the

Chicago Public Library The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the Chicago, City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, three regional libraries, and branches distributed thr ...

System. It is located just south of the Loop 'L', at 400 South State Street in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. It is a full-service library and is

ADA Ada may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle'', a novel by Vladimir Nabokov Film and television * Ada, a character in 1991 movie '' Armour of God II: Operation Condor'' * '' Ada... A Way of Life'', a 2008 Bollywo ...

compliant. Opened in 1991, it functionally replaced (after more than a decade) the city's 19th-century central library. The building contains approximately of work space. The total square footage is approximately including the rooftop winter-garden event space. It is named in honor of Mayor

Harold Washington Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st mayor of Chicago. In April 1983, Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city’s mayor at the age of ...

History

With the conversion of Chicago's former central library into the

Chicago Cultural Center The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The Cultural Center houses the city's official reception venue, where the Mayor of Chicago, M ...

in 1977, a long-term temporary central library was opened in the Mandel Building at 425 North Michigan Avenue and much of the library's collection was put into storage. A debate on a new central library ensued and continued throughout most of the 1980s, frustrated by a lack of funding. Upon his election in 1983, Mayor

supported the construction of a new central library. After the turmoil of four mayoral administrations in a seven-year period, finally, in 1986 during Washington's tenure, the city and the Library Board picked a location and floated a $175 million bond issue to provide funds for the new building, as well as the entire citywide library branch system. In 1987, a design competition was held by the city to decide on the architecture of the library. Five prominent entries were chosen from design-build coalitions of architects and contractors, representing designs by VOA Associates in collaboration with

Arthur Erickson Arthur Charles Erickson (June 14, 1924 – May 20, 2009) was a Canadian architect and urban planning, urban planner. He studied at the University of British Columbia and, in 1950, received his B.Arch. (Honours) from McGill University. He is kn ...

; Hammond, Beeby & Babka;

Murphy/Jahn Helmut Jahn (January 4, 1940 – May 8, 2021) was a German-American architect, known for projects such as the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany; the Messeturm in Frankfurt, Germany; the Thompson Center in Chicago; One Liberty Pl ...

, Lohan Associates, and SOM. The entries were narrowed down to two finalists: The Chicago Library Team with Helmut Jahn's glassy, modern design, and the SEBUS coalition, whose

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

design by Hammond, Beeby and Babka took elements from nearby historic buildings. Notably, Jahn's design was to have arched over Van Buren Street onto the area that is now occupied by Pritzker Park, incorporating a new elevated station on Chicago's Loop. These elements were deemed too expensive, along with the rest of Jahn's design, so the Hammond, Beeby and Babka design won the competition. The architectural models that the entrant teams created are located on the eighth floor of the Harold Washington Library Center, except the SEBUS entry, which is located in the ninth floor Special Collections. With the support of Harold Washington and Chicago's wealthy

Pritzker family The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in various business enterprises and philanthropy, and one of the wealthiest families in the United States (staying in the top 10 of ''Forbes'' magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since th ...

, ground was broken at the chosen site at Congress Parkway and State Street, covering an entire block. Upon the building's completion in 1991, the new mayor,

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh ter ...

, named the building in honor of the now-deceased former mayor Harold Washington, an advocate of reading and education among Chicagoans as well as an advocate of the library's construction. Before 1872, Chicago had mainly private libraries. England responded to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 by donating over 8,000 books to the city, which became the foundation of the first public library. This collection was housed in a variety of locations, until the Central Library was built in 1891. The Harold Washington Library opened on October 7, 1991. Since completion, the library has appeared in the ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

'' as the largest public library building in the world. In 2013 the architect and chairman of Hammond, Beeby and Babka, Thomas H. Beeby, won the prestigious

Driehaus Architecture Prize The Driehaus Architecture Prize, fully named The Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame, is a global award to honor a major contributor in the field of contemporary traditional and classical architecture. The Driehaus Prize was ...

for this and other projects.

Architecture

Exterior

The exterior evokes the design of the

Rookery A rookery is a colony of breeding rooks, and more broadly a colony of several types of breeding animals, generally gregarious birds. Coming from the nesting habits of rooks, the term is used for corvids and the breeding grounds of colony-fo ...

Auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoriums can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and t ...

and the

Monadnock An inselberg or monadnock ( ) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an ...

buildings. The bottom portion is made of large granite blocks. Red brick makes up the majority of the exterior. These two portions draw on the Beaux-Art style. The

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

s and most of the west side facing Plymouth Court are glass, steel and aluminum with ornamentation hearkening to the

Mannerist Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

style. In 1993, the roof was ornamented with seven large, painted aluminum

acroteria An acroterion, acroterium, (pl. akroteria) is an architectural ornament placed on a flat pedestal called the ''acroter'' or plinth, and mounted at the apex or corner of the pediment of a building in the classical style. An acroterion placed ...

Kent Bloomer Kent Cress Bloomer (May 5, 1935 – October 22, 2023) was an American sculptor of architectural ornament. He taught classes on ornament for over forty years at the Yale School of Architecture, and many of his public works of ornament have become ...

with owl figures by Raymond Kaskey. The acroterium on the State Street side depicts an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

, a symbol of knowledge due to its association with the Greek goddess

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

. The acroteria on the Congress Parkway (now Ida. B. Wells Drive) and on the Van Buren sides contain seed pods, which represent the natural bounty of the

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

. The acroteria angularia each contain an owl perched in foliage. On the divide between the granite blocks and the brick portions are wall medallions that have the face of Ceres and ears of corn. On the north, east and south sides of the build are five story tall arched windows. Between the windows are rope friezes.

Interior

All public doors lead to the

lobby Lobby may refer to: * Lobby (room), an entranceway or foyer in a building * Lobbying, the action or the group used to influence a viewpoint to politicians * Lobby (food), a thick stew made in Leigh, Greater Manchester and North Staffordshire, like ...

. The north public entrance on Van Buren is just east of the CTA's Harold Washington Library–State/Van Buren station, served by the

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

Pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

and Purple Lines. The corridor goes east, then south, then west, and opens south to the lobby. Lobby Harold Washington Library

The east and south public entrances open directly to the lobby. The west public entrance opens to the offices. The west corridor goes east then south to open at the lobby. *The lower level houses the Cindy

Pritzker The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in various business enterprises and philanthropy, and one of the wealthiest families in the United States (staying in the top 10 of ''Forbes'' magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since th ...

Auditorium, Multi-Purpose Room and Exhibit Hall. *The central lobby is two stories tall and includes both the circulation and information desks. On the east side, the Popular Library is housed and on the West side there is a YouMedia space for teens. *The second floor houses the Thomas Hughes Children’s library. *The third floor includes computers for public use, periodicals, and interlibrary loan and general information services departments along with a

library makerspace A library makerspace, also named Hackerspace or Hacklab, is an area and/or service that offers library patrons an opportunity to create intellectual and physical materials using resources such as computers, 3D printing, 3-D printers, 3D scanning, a ...

. The Maker Lab includes multiple

3D printers 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

, CNC machines and Laser Cutters. Use of these machines is available for a nominal fee. *The fourth floor holds the business, general sciences, and technology items. *The fifth floor holds government publications, Chicago municipal references, maps, and an assistive resources and talking book center for the blind, visually impaired and physically disabled. *The sixth floor holds social sciences and history resources. *The seventh floor holds literature and language resources as well as a work by acclaimed

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

sculptor Jerzy Kenar. *The eighth floor holds visual and performing arts resources, music practice rooms, and audio/visual rooms. *The ninth floor holds the Winter Garden, which may serve as a reading room or be rented for social functions. Also on this floor are exhibit halls, Special Collections, and the Harold Washington Archives and Collections. *The tenth floor is not open to the public. It houses library offices and technical services.

References

Notes

External links