Regenstein Library

The Joseph Regenstein Library is the largest library of the University of Chicago. It is named after industrialist and philanthropist Joseph Regenstein. With more than 4.4 million volumes, is the " Reg" one of the largest libraries in the world. Since its opening, it houses a Special Collections Research Center with about 265,000 rare books, manuscripts and university archives. The Research Center was established in 1953 and 1970, integrated into the library, which has a total area of ​​approximately 176,000 m² and the maximum extension of up to 105 meters (east-west ) and 125 meters ( north-south) extends.

History

The Joseph Regenstein Foundation provided the University in 1965 10 million U.S. dollars to build the library ready. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in 1968, opening in 1970. The total cost amounted to $ 20,750,000. Walter Netsch and his architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago designed the existing limestone building that was built in the architectural style of Brutalism.

The library has a ground floor, four floors and two basement levels. Each floor consists of a large room with several desks, some smaller, enclosed study rooms, and includes numerous shelves of reference books, and a number of lockers. Floors 1 and 2 are connected by a small atrium, adjacent to the reading rooms on both floors. The books archives are located in the sticks 1-4, in the western part of the building, separated from the large reading rooms. Thus, the room temperature can be kept lower than in the rest of the building, which proves to be beneficial for the preservation of books in the archives. In the eastern part of the building are 220 ​​study for university staff.

Due to high number of books in the archives decided the University of Chicago Board of Trustees in 2005 to build for 42 million U.S. dollars, an additional library that Joe and Rika Mansueto Library. This is directly connected to the Regenstein Library; by the latter leads also the only entrance to the Mansueto Library, which can be seen as part of the Reg thus. The new building has an oval, consisting only of a glass ceiling. The lower floors serve as a repository for the books that are brought out by a fully automatic storage system made of up to 15 meters depth of a robot arm. This system makes it possible to store 3.5 million books in 1/7 of the conventional volume. Architect of the Mansueto Library is the Chicago -born German architect Helmut Jahn.