With its terra-cotta towers and poetry-laced windows, Fisher Fine Arts Library has always stood out from the rest of College Green.
In the past, its Victorian architecture was considered a monstrosity - as recently as the 1960s, some University officials were calling for the building's demolition.
Half a century later, the library is widely considered an architectural gem, so much so that a recent American Institute of Architecture poll named the building one of the country's favorites.
The poll asked 1,800 volunteers to rate 240 preselected buildings on a one-to-five scale.
Coming in at 54th on the final list of the 150 top buildings, the Fine Arts Library received the highest ranking of any piece of architecture on a college campus.
Harvard University's Sever Hall ranked 77th, while the University of Michigan's Legal Research Building came in 94th. The final university structure to make the list was Yale University's Ingalls Ice Arena, at 149th.
The Empire State Building topped the list, with other top-ranked buildings ranging from museums to casinos.
Constructed between 1888 and 1891 by eccentric Philadelphia architect Frank Furness, the Fine Arts Library served as the University's main library until Van Pelt opened in 1962.
Though Penn was proud of the building at first, within a few years of its construction "it began to be seen as a kind of Victorian embarrassment," said Ed Deegan, who has worked at the Library's reference desk for the past 35 years.
Because its architecture was considered out of style, the Library's innovations went unappreciated for several years, Deegan said.
Melvil Dewey, inventor of his namesake book-classification system, helped Furness with planning, resulting in the most rational library design of the time, he added.
Deegan said years of use had taken a toll on the library by the '80s, but a $16 million project restored it in time for its centennial anniversary in 1991.
"This place is built like a fortress," Deegan said, adding that it "attracts such a bizarre collection of people."
He guessed that the building is so popular because "people like the splendor."
Even Penn President Amy Gutmann admitted to being "bowled over" by the library the first time she saw it.
"I think it's one of the main reasons why College Green is as welcoming and enthralling a place as it is," she said.
The Fine Arts Library "educates your senses; . it makes you want to be at Penn," Gutmann added.
In the past, the Library has played host to film crews and art exhibits, Deegan said.
Scenes from the 1993 drama Philadelphia were famously shot in the library's reading room.
And, in 1965, fans mobbed the Library, the original home of Penn's Institute of Contemporary Art, to see one of pop artist Andy Warhol's first shows.
Warhol "fled up the stairs," Deegan said.
Students, and even outsiders, who frequent the library - widely reputed to be quiet enough to hear a pin drop - say its showing in the poll comes as no surprise.
"I definitely think it's a beautiful building," College sophomore Elton-John Torres said.
He added that he studied Furness in an art history course.
"It was really interesting to talk about him and [then] sit in one of his buildings," Torres said.
