Library & Adminstration

As administrative center the Library/Administration Building serves as the ‘eyes, ears, and voice’ of the school. It is the first point of contact for visitors to the school. It is the communication link between different parts of the school and it also is the spot where external services such as electricity, phone, and gas come in before spreading out to the other parts of the school. In this role the building’s function is like that of a ‘head’, which is the part in an organism where most of the sense organs are located. Like a head, the Building has a clearly defined back, where the roof is lowered, and a face with a high roof and tall windows opening into an entry lobby that greets the visitor and looks out on to the central entrance road that comes into the property.

The analogy that compares the administrative sphere to a ‘head function’ is also appropriate in regard to the building’s second purpose, that of the School’s Library.

We think in our heads. Thinking as an activity is what ideally a library building might wish to support and encourage. Thinking, however, has many a shape or form, from being ‘hard’, ‘rigid’ or ‘calculating’ on one end of the scale to flightful fancy or illusion on the other extreme. The inspiring motive for the Library/Administration building was to create a space where thought might be fluid, creative and lateral and where the cool logic of the head is warmed by forces from the heart. To this end, the floor plan of the building is many sided, the angles complex and unpredictable, ceiling heights are varied, the structural skeleton a feature of the building and the symmetry dynamic. All such elements have the intent of supporting a lively interest and alert wakefulness. The curves of the roof introduce gentleness, warmth and movement. The rise and fall of the eve lines mirror the movement of a lemniscate, the right and left halves of the roof are placed into a dynamic symmetry, hovering like outstretched wings over the building, barely touching and leaving the impression of a bird in flight.