Classical Penn

Aside from the High Rises and other structures of questionable architectural motivation on campus, the University does in fact have buildings and rooms that are quintessentially Ivy. Most noticeable and well-known of these is the Fisher Fine Arts Library in the Furness Building (pronounced furnace). Designed by Frank Furness, the library opened in 1890 as the University Library, with the first separate-stack library in the country. The original intention was to add stacks as needed by adding onto the building. But the construction of Irvine Auditorium made this a virtual impossibility. In 1922, the library officially ran out of room. In the hope that the sunlight would filter down through the building, architects designed the library to have glass roofs and glass floors. But summer sunlight posed a serious heat problem with no apparent remedy. The final solution was to paint the roof over, making the glass-floored stacks an unexplainable idiosyncrasy of a beautiful building. The only glass-floored stack remaining is behind the main desk in the Reading Room, which is closed to the public. In 1991, the library was renovated to its Victorian grandeur. All the furnishings and lighting fixtures were custom-built to remind users of the classical library. Upon renovation of the library, the name was changed to the Fisher Fine Arts library in recognition of the Fisher family, which donated $3.5 million to the renovation. The recent filming of the movie Philadelphia in the library netted the University $7,000 for five days of use. Another relic of days gone by is the Henry Charles Lea Library, which was moved in its original form to the sixth floor of Van Pelt. It was created by its namesake as a source for study of European topics, and in its day, was the strongest library in its field.