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Preserving architect-designed functional spaces: the case of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library, USC

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Preserving architect-designed functional spaces: the case of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library, USC

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Preserving Architect-Designed Functional Spaces;
The Case of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library, USC

By

Ruth Wallach

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION

December 2013

Copyright 2013 Ruth Wallach

i
TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures

p. ii
Abstract

p. iii
Chapter 1: Introduction

p. 1
Chapter 2: The Early Spatial History of the Architecture Library, 1925-1973

p. 7
Chapter 3: The Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library as a Designed Space, 1973-
Present

p. 21
Chapter 4: The Architect’s Intent: Brutalism, Rationalism, and Design with Light

p. 40

Chapter 5: Preserving the AFA Library as a Work of Architecture: Recommendations p. 58

Bibliography

p. 65

ii
LIST OF FIGURES

Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 Photograph of the exterior of Watt Hall, 2012 p. 3
Figure 1.2 Photograph of the exterior of Mudd Hall, 2013 p. 4

Chapter 2

Figure 2.1 Photograph of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2002 p. 8
Figure 2.2 Drawing of the Architecture Department building, 1920s p. 11
Figure 2.3 Plan of Harris Hall, 1939 p. 13
Figure 2.4 Photograph of the Verle Annis gallery, 2013 p. 15
Figure 2.5 Plan of the AFA Library in 1974 p. 17
Figure 2.6 Photograph of the AFA Library in the 1980s p. 18

Chapter 3

Figure 3.1 Drawing of the proposed sculpture terrace, AFA Library, 1987 p. 23
Figure 3.2 Proposed plan of the expanded AFA Library, 1987 p. 25
Figure 3.3 Axonometric view of the exterior of the proposed AFA Library, 1987 p. 26
Figure 3.4 Floor plan of the AFA Library, 1990 p. 28
Figure 3.5 Photograph to the entrance of the AFA Library, 2012 p. 29
Figure 3.6 Photograph of the main book stacks area, AFA Library, 2012 p. 30
Figure 3.7 Photograph of the Watt Hall exterior overhang, 2012 p. 31
Figure 3.8 Photograph of the pedestrian bridge in the AFA Library, 2012 p. 32
Figure 3.9 Photograph of the courtyard between Watt and Harris halls, 2012 p. 33
Figure 3.10 Photograph of the entry into the AFA Library reading room, 2013 p. 35
Figure 3.11 Photograph of the skylight pavilions, exterior of Watt Hall, 2012 p. 36
Figure 3.12 Photograph of one of the mezzanines, AFA Library, 2012 p. 37
Figure 3.13 Photograph of the AFA reading room, 2012 p. 38
Figure 3.14 Photograph of the interior of the main skylight, AFA Library, 2012 p. 39

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1 Photograph of the exterior of Casa del Fascio p. 43
Figure 4.2 Photograph of the interior of Casa del Fascio p. 44
Figure 4.3 Photograph of the reading room, AFA Library, 2012 p. 46
Figure 4.4 Photograph of light patterns from the skylights, AFA Library, 2013 p. 47
Figure 4.5 Drawing of the proposed reading room, AFA Library, 1987 p. 49
Figure 4.6 Preliminary architectural study for skylights, AFA Library, late 1980s p. 51
Figure 4.7 Preliminary architectural study for skylights, AFA library, late 1980s p. 52
Figure 4.8 Architect-designed AFA library furniture, 2012 p. 54
Figure 4.9 Photograph of an event on the terrace, AFA Library, 1990 p. 56
Figure 4.10 Sectional drawing of the AFA Library, 1980s, annotated in 2013 p. 57

Chapter 5

Figure 5.1 View of the Von KleinSmid and Social Sciences buildings, 2013 p. 59
Figure 5.2 Photograph of the Ahmanson Center and Stauffer Hall, 2013 p. 60
Figure 5.3 Watercolor of Watt Hall, 1974 p. 61

iii
ABSTRACT

This thesis traces the spatial design history of the University of Southern California’s Helen Topping
Architecture and Fine Arts (AFA) Library from the inception of the architecture library circa 1923 to the
present. Between 1923 and late 1973, when the AFA Library moved to the newly constructed Ray and
Nadine Watt Hall, the spaces allocated to the library did not have particular architectural design features.
Nevertheless, although during this period the librarians were consumed with developing collections and
services to meet the research and curricular needs of the library’s primary users, they also worked on
improving the spatial and aesthetic features of the library. The Modernist architecture of Watt Hall, which
opened in late 1973, also became a defining feature of the AFA Library’s identity, both in the original
design and in the design of the striking 1990 addition. In the thesis I examine the library as a case study
for the influences of twentieth century Brutalism and Rationalism in architecture. I also look at the
question of the integrity of a designed functional space, the purpose of which is to accommodate the
changing needs of the library and of the University, within the framework of historic preservation.
1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library (known locally by its acronym as the
AFA Library) is administered by the USC Libraries. It is located in the basement of Ray and Nadine Watt
Hall. Designed in concrete and glass by the Southern California architecture firm Killingsworth, Brady,
and Associates, with design architect Samuel T. Hurst, then dean of the USC School of Architecture, Watt
Hall opened in 1973 and was dedicated in 1974. Together with the 1939 May Ormerod Harris Hall,
located immediately to the east, Watt Hall houses the offices and classrooms of the School of
Architecture and the Gayle Garner Roski School of Fine Arts.
My first prolonged encounter with the AFA Library was in the summer of 1995, when it was
going through a staffing hiatus. Upon a request from the dean of the USC Libraries, I agreed to split my
time for the duration of that summer between the Doheny Memorial Library, where I worked then, and
the AFA Library. This encounter, brief as it was, drew a mixed reaction from me. On the one hand I
enjoyed working in close proximity to a good multidisciplinary collection in the visual arts, one that was
used by researchers not just in art and architecture, but also from a broad variety of fields, such as
literature, art history, cinema, critical studies, theater, communications and journalism, urban studies, and
history. At the same time I chafed at having to work underground in an office lit entirely by artificial
lights, located in a large subterranean space also primarily lit by artificial lights. The large glass window
in my small office held a promise of an opening, but in reality it separated one enclosed underground
environment from another, and seemed like a cruel joke. I did not relish the daily practice of moving from
the sunlit plaza between Harris and Watt buildings into the interior of Watt Hall, and down the concrete
stairs into what I dubbed “the bunker.”
Watt Hall is designed as a Brutalist-style concrete building, a self-contained cube lacking frontal
definition, its two-story exterior clad in smooth grey concrete that frames ribbons of large windows that
do not open.
1
The building is considerably air-conditioned in the summers. Temperatures on the ground
floor can plunge into what felt like sub-arctic lows. At that time, trying to warm up, I would go wandering
around the library, looking at my surroundings: very tall, exposed sand-blasted concrete walls; harshly lit
square concrete coffers in the ceiling; a band of laminate in deep blue, which I dubbed Mondrian blue,
above the high shelves –shelves that are literally located very high, requiring a special ladder to reach; the
pristine white color of the second-story mezzanine; and the rectangular skylights over the reading room,
where glass softly rattled with the forced interior air. I would wander around the sun-lit concrete terrace
above the library, looking down through the pavilion-like skylights at the orderly rows of blonde oak

1
In 2005 a third story was added to Watt Hall. It is wider than the lower stories and forms an overhang.
While also designed in concrete and glass, it is perforated with open-air verandas on each side.
2
wood bookshelves and reading tables below, designed for the reading room by Graeme Maxwell
Morland. On one warm summer day it finally occurred to me that at least the reading room was truly a
beautiful space.
Some years later, after becoming Head Librarian of AFA in 1999, I started studying its spaces
more closely. Over the years I have anecdotally heard students, faculty and visitors occasionally remark
on the architecture of Watt Hall. Its Modernist visual idiom of exposed concrete, flat roofline, and lack of
any decoration does not make the building particularly appealing to the casual observer. Watt Hall’s style
is certainly very different from the appropriated Lombard Renaissance style of the 1920s-era buildings
designed by John and Donald Parkinson in much of the historic core of the USC campus, or from the
Romanesque-inspired Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Hall of Philosophy and the combination Regency
Moderne style of Harris Hall, both designed by Ralph Carlin Flewelling. [Figures 1.1 and 1.2, pp. 3 and
4] The latter two are located immediately to the east of Watt Hall, and in their historicized design form a
contrast to its post-World War II architectural aesthetic. Although the stylistic differences are stark,
Graeme M. Morland, consulting architect on Watt Hall, considers these buildings to be examples of
clarity and dignity in architectural design. As courtyard buildings they provide a contextual framework
for Watt Hall, itself designed to connect to Harris Hall via a courtyard.
2
Unlike Watt Hall, the AFA
Library seems to have a spatial appeal for visitors, particularly the reading room with its soaring ceiling,
natural light, slender columns, and elegant wood furnishings.
The fact that the basement of Watt Hall, where the library is located, was planned as a multi-
functional center for study and research, lends the AFA space a particular poignancy, at least for me.
Libraries are largely utilitarian institutions. Nevertheless, they also embody symbolic meaning. Both the
symbolic and utilitarian aspects are expressed in the design of their physical spaces. There are two
enduring symbolic facets to libraries. One of them is that libraries preserve knowledge and provide a
sense of spiritual or inspirational connection to it. Related to this is the second symbolic notion that
libraries represent the ideals of democratic access to information, so that all types of collections, no matter
how esoteric, are available as broadly as their institutional context allows. However, as functional
physical places, libraries evolved in the twentieth century from being primarily devoted to collections to
becoming, in professional parlance, user-focused service providers. Libraries are a type of a third space.
3

They are living environments that must accommodate people, who in turn bring continuous change in
usage. Although the symbolic nature of libraries has not changed significantly, on a functional level
libraries have changed considerably. Architectural design impacts the daily praxis of employees and

2
Graeme M. Morland, note to the author, September 2013.
3
I use this term in reference to communal and social places that contextualize a neutral level playing
field, described by Ray Oldenburg in his 1989 book The Great Good Place (New York: Paragon House).
3

Figure 1.1. Ray and Nadine Watt Hall (Killingsworth, Brady and Associates, opened in
1973, dedicated in 1974) is designed in the Modernist visual idiom of the second part of
the twentieth century. Use of exposed concrete and vast expanses of glass lend this
architecture an aspect of rectilinear severity. Its style is in direct contrast to that of the
1920s and 1930s-era buildings located nearby in the historic corridor of the university
campus, as may be seen in Figure 1.2. Photographed by the author in 2012.
4

Figure 1.2. The Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Hall of Philosophy (Ralph Carlin Flewelling,
1930) is one of the University’s most iconic buildings, part of its historic heritage of
structures designed to stylistically emulate early Renaissance Italian architecture. The
Romanesque-style architecture of a religious cloister functions as historic precedent in
the case of Mudd Hall. Photographed by the author in 2013.

users, yet at the same time it also defines the library as a symbolic place for the pursuit of knowledge in a
particular context.
Among the libraries on the University Park Campus, four stand out for their architectural design:
the James Harmon Hoose Library of Philosophy (Ralph Carlin Flewelling, 1930), the Edward L. Doheny
Jr. Memorial Library (Ralph Adams Cram and Samuel Lunden, 1932), the Helen Topping Architecture
and Fine Arts Library (Graeme M. Morland, 1973, Morland and Ellerbe Becket, Inc., 1990), and the
Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Library (Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, 1994). Unlike the
other three libraries which have exterior façades that mix historic styles, a unified Brutalist visual idiom
extends from the exterior of Watt Hall into its interior, and contextualizes the design of the AFA Library.
Watt Hall in its entirety was designed as an aesthetic totality, a gesamtkunstwerk. As the University
5
grows and rethinks the use of its physical spaces on campus and in the surrounding areas, all its libraries,
including AFA, have come under consideration for physical/structural redesign, part of which,
occasionally, is for non-library-related purposes.
My own perspective on this process is mixed. I became a librarian at a time when academic
libraries began undergoing considerable physical and organizational changes, and am of a generation of
professionals who embraced the idea of the library as an evolving institution. Yet I am mindful of the
design aspect of the AFA Library, one that ironically took me many years to appreciate. USC students,
who are in tremendous need of third places, come here to study in part because they appreciate its striking
design. Researchers from many fields at the University come to the AFA Library for its print collections.
When discussions on possible alterations of the library began in March 2012, I saw this development
philosophically: libraries change; they must change; they are expected to change. Yet it appeared that in
the rush to draw new construction plans, no one – not the architects, nor the project manager, or the
construction administrators – bothered to notice that AFA was a space designed in a specific architectural
style. The discussions that took place at that time centered on putting a dry wall here or on making an
opening there. Suddenly I found myself defending Brutalism, apparently with some success, since the
language of design began to creep into some of the subsequent meetings. Construction was delayed and
some of the ideas for alterations changed, as the Dean of the School of Architecture was asked to do a
conceptual plan. Because the AFA Library will likely be at least partially redesigned in the foreseeable
future, I hope that some of its spatial arrangements will be preserved. It occurs to me that documenting
some of the history of this library’s design may constitute a useful record.
This thesis will examine the spatial history of the library from its origins to the present, relying
mostly on ephemera preserved in the archives of the USC Libraries and on the author’s communication
with the design architect. The second chapter will provide an overview of the early history of the
architecture library, and the rest of the thesis will be devoted to placing the AFA Library’s spatial
arrangement within the larger framework of mid-twentieth century Brutalist architectural influences. A
chapter will be devoted to examining the practical and symbolic importance of natural light within the
library’s design. An overview of the functional history of the library will, by necessity, be intertwined
with the history of its spaces and architectural design. Given the intermittent discussions on future
construction within the interior of the library, the thesis will provide, to the extent possible, a historic
record of its architecture. From the perspective of historic preservation/heritage conservation the AFA
Library represents a well-worn conundrum. It is part of a large tier one research university that has the
power to re-appropriate and transform spaces to fit its own evolving academic and research needs.
4
It is

4
As classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, carnegiefoundation.org.
6
an interior space that houses a facility that changes, slowly but surely. All of these variables exert
pressure on the library’s physical environment. This raises questions: should a utilitarian space be
considered to have an enduring historic integrity just because it was designed in a distinctive architectural
language? Is Modernist design malleable enough to accommodate a more contemporary intervention
without losing integrity? Does the symbolic nature of the library, as expressed in spatial design, endure,
and is it worthy of preservation? Historic preservation standards for the built environment generally
privilege the integrity of the façade; yet the AFA Library does not have one.
5
It is an interior space
contained in another interior space. The thesis will address these larger questions within the specific
context of the AFA Library.

5
Strictly speaking, this is a somewhat debatable point. The geometric skylights located on the exterior
terrace above the library may be construed as its façade, since they were specifically designed for the
library during its expansion in the 1980s.
7
CHAPTER 2: THE EARLY SPATIAL HISTORY OF THE ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY, 1925-1973

The physical design of libraries is a prominent topic of interest to librarians and architects.
Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), one of the main indexing services collating
professional library literature, lists over 2000 articles, books, and graduate theses retrieved under subject
headings such as “libraries and design,” “architecture and library buildings,” “library buildings and
design,” and other related terms. A subject search on the design of libraries through the Avery Index to
Architectural Periodicals, the main index for articles in the field of architectural design, brings back over
7000 entries.
6
A quick scan through post-2009 articles retrieved through LISA reveals the continuing
importance that librarians attach to the functionality of library design. That modern librarianship sees
libraries as utilitarian institutions is affirmed by one of the foundational adages of the profession, the five
laws of library science proposed in 1931 by the library theoretician and educator S. R. Ranganathan. His
foundational laws are brief, to wit: books are for use; every reader his [or her] book; every book its
reader; save the time of the reader; the library is a growing organism. The American Library
Association’s “Library Bill of Rights” amplifies on the sentiments expressed in Ranganathan’s laws, and
expands them into norms of comprehensive access to information. Ranganathan’s published work does
not address the spatial design of libraries, concentrating instead on defining norms for classification and
access to information. To the extent that the “Library Bill of Rights” addresses the physical context of
libraries, it is to ensure that library spaces are equally available for a variety of needs to all users.
7

Nevertheless, despite librarians’ emphasis on collections, classification, information access, and provision
of communal spaces as the primary services provided by libraries, the profession has a long-standing
interest, primarily functional, in the design of library spaces and buildings.
Comprehensive discussions on the design of libraries and their spatial configuration date to
Gabriel Naudé’s 1627 Advice on Establishing a Library.
8
While laying out some organizational
principles, such as an orderly library collection to provide what we today call open access, Naudé also
recommended a practical physical design consisting of a well-furnished quiet space for reading. In
subsequent centuries, from Etienne-Louis Boullée’s great vaulted arcade that dwarfed collections and

6
Admittedly, it is very likely that not all of the results in LISA and the Avery Index are specifically about
the design of library buildings, given that the terms may be used in a variety of contexts, such as
information architecture in the computerized environment, or the development of disciplinary collections.
7
Good brief summaries on S. R. Ranganathan’s five laws of library science and the ALA “Library Bill of
Rights,” which constitute the service foundations of the library profession, may be found in the
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_laws_of_library_science and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_bill_of_rights.
8
Originally published in Paris, it was reprinted several times, most recently in 1976 by Greenwood Press.
8
readers, through the separation of Beaux Arts-inspired grandly designed hushed reading rooms from the
warehouse-like book stacks, to the free-flowing multi-functional spaces of contemporary libraries,
discussions on the architectural design of libraries focused on the interrelationship between form and
function. Given the symbolic importance of libraries as civic spaces, library design into the twentieth
century strove to be, to use Charles Soule’s words, noble and prominent.
9
The idea that library spaces,
particularly the public ones, ought to be grandiose or inspirational persists to this day, as may be seen in
the recent design of the Seattle Public Library by Office of Metropolitan Architecture or of the
Bibliotheca Alexandrina by Snøhetta.
10
[Figure 2.1 below]

Figure 2.1. Snøhetta, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Cairo, 2002. An example of a recently
built library that features public spaces with soaring ceiling, ample lighting, and graceful
tall columns. Photographed by Carsten Whimster, October 28, 2006. Image retrieved in
2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CW_BibliotechaAlexandrina_Inside.jpg.

9
Charles Soule quoted by Nan Dahlkild in “The Emergence and Challenge of the Modern Library
Building: Ideal Types, Model Libraries, and Guidelines, from the Enlightenment to the Experience
Economy,” Library Trends 60 no. 1 (2011): 18.
10
The spatial notions of grandeur and inspiration, however, usually do not extend to the areas of the book
stacks.
9
A recent article by Nan Dahlkild, published in the journal Library Trends, aptly and eloquently
summarizes this history.
11
At the same time, the library profession remains significantly invested in the
functionality of public and cultural spaces, work offices and lounges, and collection storage and display,
and somewhat less wedded to spatial aesthetics. Functionally non-assignable spaces, such as entrances
and vestibules, walls, restrooms, stairs, elevators, hallways, and custodial storage also play an important
role in utilitarian considerations. The advice literature indexed in LISA on planning and programming
library buildings makes for rather dull reading from an architectural design perspective. Accordingly, it is
recommended that libraries should have no atria, no high shelves, no unusual lighting or wall angles, and
preferably few stairs. Like the panopticon, libraries ought to provide clear sight lines from the service
desk, be modular, and entirely protected from flooding and direct natural light.
12
Signage should be
neither too discreet nor too imposing, and flexible enough to support changes in the usage of library
spaces. This polarity between architectural design and the function of the library frames the historic
context of the development of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library.
USC has had library collections almost since its inception. In 1881 a “central” collection was
organized through a gift of 700 volumes and half as many periodicals from Reverend A. H. Higby, a
retired minister, and was housed for a time in the Widney Alumni House, the oldest surviving University
building (Ezra F. Kysor and Octavius Morgan, 1880). The library collection was available for use on
Fridays only. In 1887 it was reorganized by Reverend John Dickenson, who was the first official librarian
at the University, and professor E. T. Merrill, who taught Latin. At that time, the library had no budget
and relied on donations. In 1901, when the first full time librarian, Mrs. Loretta May Crowell, was hired,
the collection was housed in the four story brick and stucco College of Liberal Arts building (John C.
Austin, dedicated 1887), and was known as the College collection. By 1906, the library housed around
5,000 volumes, and by 1917, seven years after the establishment of the Graduate School, the College
collection had 35,000 volumes. This collection became the basis for the Doheny Memorial Library
collection. Specialized libraries also started primarily as faculty donations to departmental reading rooms.
The Department of Philosophy had a library, which moved into its ornate scriptorium-like quarters in
Mudd Hall in 1930. A disciplinary library opened in the Department of Architecture on September 15,
1923. The original architecture library collection came from a loan of books and bookcases by the Los
Angeles-based architect Alfred Faist Rosenheim.
13
At that time, the Department of Architecture occupied

11
Dahlkild, “Modern Library Building,” 11-42.
12
John A. Moorman, “Library Buildings: Planning and Programming,” Library Trends 60 no. 1 (2011):
215-226.
13
Eleanor Wheatley, Architecture Library annual report, 1929-1930. Architecture and Fine Arts Library
collection, University Archives.
10
a portion of the Music Arts building, located on the north side of campus.
14
Two years later, in 1925,
architecture students and faculty “salvaged” the remains of the Chemistry building, and constructed a
building for the Department of Architecture on 35
th
Street.
15
The library collection was housed in an
office space in the building.
16
[Figure 2.2, p. 11] The first librarian for architecture, Eleanor S. Wheatley,
was hired at USC in 1925. Her job, according to her own words, was “organizing and tabulating the
library’s two possessions, Sweet’s catalogue of building manufacturers and the collection of books loaned
by Alfred F. Rosenheim, Los Angeles architect.”
17
While Mrs. Wheatley pursued her task, she found her
physical quarters inadequate, and almost immediately complained of lack of ventilation on the southwest
side of the library’s space.
18
Both the space allocated and the size of the collection appeared to be too
small for the needs of the Department of Architecture. The University of Southern California Bulletin for
1926 contained the following statement about the architecture library: “The library contains over 600
books on architecture, 800 bound volumes of magazines, 1800 mounted photographs, and 3000 lantern
slides.” The Rosenheim loan to start the library appears to have been of books; the mounted photographs
and lantern slides may have been contributions made by architecture faculty. USC architecture students
and faculty also had access to the library of the Allied Architects’ Association of Los Angeles. The
Association was instrumental in the formation of the USC School of Architecture. It opened its own
library of about 1000 volumes in January 1925 in a suite of rooms of the Citizens National Bank, located
on the northwest corner of Spring and Fifth streets in downtown Los Angeles.
As any librarian would, Mrs. Wheatley embarked on securing additional collections. At first she
did this through soliciting donations, as it appears that the Department of Architecture did not
immediately provide funds for collection development. By the late 1920s the library received books
donated by Rexford G. Newcomb of the University of Illinois and by the Allied Architects’ Association
of Los Angeles.
19
Within a couple of years the collection increased to 1300 books, 5000 mounted
photographs, and 5000 lantern slides. The collection of bound periodicals remained at 800 for some

14
Deborah Howell-Ardila, ““Writing Our Own Program”: The USC Experiment in Modern Architectural
Pedagogy, 1930 to 1960” (Master’s thesis, University of Southern California, 2010), 22.
15
Howell-Ardilla, “Writing Our Own Program,” 29.
16
According to the December 2, 1946 article in the Daily Trojan, “Architecture Library Holds Wealth of
Colorful Displays,” the Architecture building went on to eventually house the School of Cinematic Arts.
The building was torn down in the planning for Leavey Library, which opened in 1994.
17
“Art Librarian Views Growth of University,” Daily Trojan (August 6, 1940): 2.
18
Eleanor Wheatley, Architecture Library monthly report, October 1925. Architecture and Fine Arts
Library collection, University Archives.
19
Charlotte Brown, “Architecture Library at the University of Southern California,” Special Libraries 17
no. 6 (June 1926).
11

Figure 2.2. Drawing of the 1920s Architecture Department building. The library, space B,
was located on the lower left of the formally landscaped plaza drawn on the right side of
the plan. Courtesy of University Archives.
12
years.
20
By 1929, according to Mrs. Wheatley’s reports, the library’s small space was already severely
overcrowded. When in 1933 the College of Architecture became the College of Architecture and Fine
Arts, the library began to officially collect materials in both disciplines, not just in architecture.
21
By 1936
it was entirely out of collection space. Partly for spatial reasons and partly for the purposes of
preservation, a number of architecture and fine arts books, particularly some of the rare materials, were
moved to the Edward L. Doheny Memorial Library, which was constructed a few years earlier in 1932.
22

It was probably around this time that the architecture library came under the overall administration of the
university libraries, headed by Charlotte Brown. It is unclear whether there was study space in the
architecture library, since Mrs. Wheatley’s reports did not mention any. There was, however, a fireplace,
which worked intermittently and, therefore, merited mention. Mrs. Wheatley also took advantage of the
presence of artists on the faculty, and accepted ceramic bowls made by Glen Lukens, a noted regional
ceramicist and professor of art at USC, to decorate the library’s space. It is clear from reading her
monthly and annual reports, preserved in the University Archives, that she was concerned with
maintaining an atmosphere that was aesthetically pleasing as well as intellectually stimulating.
On October 12, 1939 the Art and Architecture Library opened in the newly constructed May
Ormerod Harris building, located on the south side of campus. Harris Hall was designed by the Los
Angeles architect Ralph Carlin Flewelling, who was also the designer of the 1930 Mudd Hall of
Philosophy, located immediately to the east. Although Mudd and Harris halls were built only ten years
apart, they were designed in very different styles, the earlier one in Romanesque revival, the latter in a
hybrid of Regency and Moderne styles.
23
The library was located on the site of the current Verle Annis
Gallery, on the east side of the westernmost of Harris Hall’s two courtyards. [Figure 2.3, p. 13] It appears
to have taken up two floors.
24
The library’s service desk and study tables were especially designed for it
by Professor Verle Annis of the School of Architecture, although it is unclear in what style or from what
materials. The library had glass cases and a separate locked stacks area for valuable books, as well as steel
shelves for the regular collection. Soon after the library moved into its new quarters, Ms. Wheatley, who

20
Figures on the architecture library collection come from the University of Southern California Bulletin
for 1926, p. 8, and the Bulletin for 1928, p. 11. University Archives.
21
Eleanor Wheatley, Architecture Library annual report, 1933-1934. Architecture and Fine Arts Library
collection, University Archives.
22
Eleanor Wheatley, Architecture Library annual report, 1936. Architecture and Fine Arts Library
collection, University Archives.
23
Coincidentally, Ralph Carlin Flewelling was the son of the director of the USC Department of
Philosophy, Ralph Tyler Flewelling.
24
Eleanor Wheatley, Architecture Library monthly report, October 1939. Architecture and Fine Arts
Library collection, University Archives.
13

Figure 2.3. This plan of the May O. Harris Hall shows the library located just north of the
Fisher Gallery. The library occupied most of the space in this wing of Harris Hall, with
the exception of the seminar room immediately to its south. The Verle Annis Gallery and
departmental offices currently occupy the former library space. Image from the Alumni
Review of December 1939, p. 19. Courtesy of University Archives.

was temporarily relieved that there was finally adequate space for the library, nevertheless complained
that Venetian blinds still needed to be installed on the windows for the protection of the collection and of
the new furniture from sunshine.
25
Over the ensuing years, Ms. Wheatley, who retired in 1950 after
twenty five years of service, continuously worried about lack of adequate space for study and for the
perusal of the book and journal collection that kept growing. She was also concerned about basic facilities
issues that made staff work in the library difficult. For example, she kept reminding the powers that be at
the USC Libraries that there was little cross ventilation in the architecture library, and requested that
radiators be removed so as to free more space for the growing collection of books.
26
Mrs. Wheatley
continuously fretted about the library’s increasingly inadequate space, while promoting new book
acquisitions and donations. At the same time she appears to have been equally concerned about the
aesthetics of the library’s physical environment. On occasion in her reports she emphasized that a pleasant
atmosphere was an important part of making the library function appropriately. In her annual report for

25
Wheatley, October 1939.
26
Eleanor Wheatley, Architecture Library annual report, 1941. Architecture and Fine Arts Library
collection, University Archives.
14
1941 she wrote “Eventually we hope that the north end of the library will be remodeled so that stacks will
be open above and below, and artistic columns and attractive iron grille work will replace the bare walls
above and the holes in the wall below which we now endure. Later on must come the expansion into the
adjoining seminar room.”
27
Mrs. Wheatley maintained that the adjoining seminar room was built to
accommodate the eventual expansion of the library, and was extremely disappointed, enough to point this
out in her report, when the seminar room was taken over for offices by the Department of Fine Arts.
28

By 1946 the architecture and fine arts Library had close to 5000 books, at least 600 bound journal
volumes, 5000 mounted photographs, and 10,000 lantern slides, and it kept growing.
29
From the mid-
1930s onward Mrs. Wheatley maintained an active purchasing program to the extent allowed by funding
from the USC Libraries, and also accepted many books and journals donated by faculty and students. She
also had an ad hoc library exhibitions program that included permanent and temporary displays.
Interestingly, her exhibitions were not of books but of objects that were not usually a traditional part of
library collections. For example, she arranged for exhibitions of a collection of dolls in period costumes,
ceramics done by students and faculty, and photographs, sculptures, and other items she thought to be
both of aesthetic and educational relevance to the library’s users. In November 1947 Glen Lukens lent
some Indian pottery from his collection for an exhibition on the premises. In one of her reports Ms.
Wheatley noted that the library exhibited a bronze sculpture by Matisse, loaned by an anonymous donor,
to great interest by visitors. USC students also organized a variety of small exhibitions in the library.
These exhibitions of artifacts and the publicity and programming related to them, such as talks, were part
of what the modern library profession calls “outreach.” Mrs. Wheatley was rightly proud to highlight such
efforts, but her greatest concern was the lack of physical space to accommodate growth taken up by new
additions of books, journals, and slides, and the concurrent increase in the use of the library by students
and faculty.
On a recent visit to the Verle Annis Gallery, I thought with some sympathy of Mrs. Wheatley’s
efforts on behalf of collections and of adequate and pleasant space in the name of improving the
intellectual atmosphere of the library, and recalled the occasionally exasperated statements about facilities
in her reports. The space [Figure 2.4, p. 15] was supposed to accommodate several thousand collection
items, including special collections that were kept in locked stacks, at least a few tables to peruse books
and view slides, some public and office space for staff – Mrs. Wheatley’s reports occasionally mention
another librarian or staff member – and some space for exhibition displays. Given the spatial arrangement

27
Wheatley, 1941.
28
Wheatley, 1941.
29
Al Reid, “Dolls, Pottery Exhibit,” Daily Trojan (April 10, 1946): 2.
15

Figure 2.4 View of the Verle Annis gallery from one corner to another. This was the
primary location of the art and architecture library from 1939 until 1973. Photographed
by the author, 2013.

of this part of Harris Hall, which currently contains the gallery and several offices that are occupied by
the Fisher Museum, it is difficult to verify the physical dimensions of the original library. Reading Mrs.
Wheatley’s reports, however, it appears that the current gallery space constituted the bulk of the library’s
facilities.
Spatial strain on staff and on collections spaces was a continuous theme noted in their reports by
subsequent librarians, as the library continued its existence in Harris Hall. This is certainly true for the
reports written by Alson Clark, who headed the library for nearly three decades from 1959 to 1987. It was
during Alson Clark’s tenure, in late 1973, that the architecture and fine arts library finally moved from its
small and cramped space in Harris Hall to an area three times larger in the basement floor of the newly
built Watt Hall. The space for the library was primarily designed by Graeme M. Morland, a member of
the faculty at the School of Architecture, in the same visual language as the building.
16
Through his long tenure as the head of the AFA library, Alson Clark, who in addition to a
master’s degree in librarianship had educational and professional background in architecture, continued
writing monthly and annual reports on the state of the library. Like Mrs. Wheatley before him, Mr. Clark
noted the growth of the collection, the evolving use of library’s spaces, and, while Watt Hall was in the
process of design and construction, he made occasional remarks on the design aesthetics of the future
library space. Like Eleanor Wheatley, Alson Clark was not a man to mince words. For example, in
October 1973 he wrote in a report, “We are soon to move into a new library. Your librarian has fought
very hard to make the new facility as easy to use as possible for the faculty and students. The architect of
the building [e.g., design architect Samuel T. Hurst] was obsessed with notions of paper symmetry and
grandiose effects.”
30
Unfortunately for historic inquiry, Mr. Clark refrained from listing the specifics of
the grandiose effects that the architect of the building was so keen on and that were possibly inimical to
the library. Nevertheless, some surviving minutes of earlier meetings, during which the library’s design
was discussed, give indication as to the functional points of contention. For example, the library
consultant suggested that the slide library, which was considered to be a teaching tool rather than a library
collection, be moved out of the spatial jurisdiction of the library elsewhere, and that the library’s
mezzanine area be used for additional book shelves instead. This idea was supported by Clark, who was
planning for the future growth of the library. It would have also altered the design and the use of the
mezzanine. This suggestion was rejected, possibly for spatial reasons. Additional structural and design
elements, such as the location of the stairs to the mezzanine and the spatial arrangement of the mezzanine
itself, also appear to have been part of passionate discussions, some of which were more political in
nature: “Gerald Weisbach (arch) counseled against any change in the mezzanine plan, as he stated that
Dean Hurst had sweated blood and moved heaven and earth to get the mezzanine under construction, and
any change in its plan might be a setback.”
31

The new library opened for use on October 25, 1973. The space was essentially rectangular, and
had walls of exposed smooth grey concrete and a coffered ceiling, also of exposed grey concrete.
Bookshelves of solid oak, designed by Graeme M. Morland especially for the library, lined the north wall.

30
Alson Clark, Report to the Architecture Library Committee, October 1973. Architecture and Fine Arts
Library collection, University Archives. Librarians’ complaints about architects’ notions of library design
were not unusual. For example, Charlotte Brown, University Librarian at USC from 1908 until the late
1930s, wrote on September 31, 1931 to University Chancellor Rufus B. von KleinSmid, during the
construction of the Doheny Memorial Library, complaining that the architect, Samuel Lunden, “keeps
reminding me that we are building a ‘beautiful memorial’[emphasis in the original] and practical things
must give way to beautiful as learned in school by an architect.” Doheny Memorial Library collection,
University Archives.
31
Minutes of planning meeting, November 10, 1972. Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection,
University Archives.
17
The horizontal band of clerestory windows at the top of the north wall was the only source of natural
light. The functional allocation of space in the 1970s shows what was considered important to provide
services to student and faculty users of the library. [Figure 2.5 below]

Figure 2.5. Plan of the AFA Library in 1974. Courtesy of the Helen Topping Architecture
and Fine Arts Library archives.

The service/loan desk was located immediately to the west of the entrance and functioned as a
gateway to the library. The journal collection was located to the east of the entrance, within sight of the
service desk. Journals were a primary form of dissemination of contemporary design ideas, and were
prominently placed to allow for easy perusal. In this pre-computer age, the card catalog was positioned in
a central location, facing the service desk and the entrance, ensuring its visibility as providing key access
to the library’s collection. Circulating books took much of the library’s space to the left of the loan desk.
The few study tables, although not indicated on the plan in Figure 2.5, were located centrally in the
middle of everything. They were also located within clear sight lines of the service desk, in part to prevent
theft and mutilation of the collection.
While the location on the ground floor of Watt Hall was much larger than that in Harris Hall,
today it appears quaint and small for an academic disciplinary library, and certainly in comparison with
what the AFA Library became in subsequent decades. [Figure 2.6, p. 18] According to the 1973 design,
the main library floor comprised 6500 square feet; the mezzanine, where the teaching slide collection was
located, was 1160 square feet, and the locked special collections room had 400 square feet.

18

Figure 2.6. Photograph of the AFA Library from the brochure produced for the
groundbreaking ceremony for the library’s expansion, dated September 23, 1986. Seen
hanging on the wall in the upper left corner is a tapestry, which may have been used both
for decoration and for acoustics. Its design and whereabouts are unknown. Courtesy of
the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library archives.

The stairs to the mezzanine added another 40 square feet.
32
This is approximately half the physical size of
the current library. While the collection did not reach 15,000 volumes until 1959, when it was still located
in Harris Hall, by the early 1980s it more than tripled in size to 49,000, reflecting in part developments in
publishing, but also the increasing breadth of research needs within architecture, fine arts, and art history.
Although the space in Watt Hall was superior to the old space in Harris Hall, nevertheless, the
AFA Library quickly outgrew this location. It was during Alson Clark’s tenure as Head Librarian that
discussions began on expanding the library. In 1978 the main service desk was reconfigured to allow for
the installation of additional shelving for the growing reserves collection that housed required course
reading materials, as well as seminal theoretical, encyclopedic, and technical works of broad importance

32
Alson Clark, memo to Dean Robert Harris, April 19, 1982. Architecture and Fine Arts Library
collection, University Archives.
19
across the curriculum. More bookshelves were also added to the circulating collection, cannibalizing
reader space, and still the collection reached maximum spatial capacity.
33
In his monthly and annual
reports, Alson Clark lamented the lack of space not only for the collections, but also for students and
faculty, since users were integral to the definition of a library. The staff in the library observed that the
space was being used for a variety of functions, as libraries often are, and Clark recommended a physical
reorganization to accommodate them, while preserving the library’s mission as a research facility:
“Divide the tables at the west end of the room to be like study carrels. Our library is being used as a study
hall and social room by engineers. This division has been done at places like the Business Library and has
resulted in lower noise levels.”
34
In the early 1980s, as discussions began about the possibility to expand
the AFA Library and other facilities in Watt Hall, Clark, a consummate librarian who foresaw the
collection growing to 100,000 volumes by the end of the twentieth century, continued to argue for the
importance of having a nicely designed scholarly facility, which should be “simple, easily understandable,
quiet….climate controlled and tranquil, not gimmicky, but could also have subtly interesting daylighting
at appropriate points,” in essence issuing a design challenge for a facility located in a basement.
35
While
planning for the expansion, Clark saw an opportunity to better organize the growing library. His stated
needs were eminently practical, in keeping with the tradition of librarians regarding library spaces in
utilitarian terms. Clark wanted one entrance/exit point for both economic and security reasons. He wanted
a logical massing of services and collections. Thus, he requested that the service desk continue to be
located next to the entrance and that course materials be kept behind the desk. He also wanted the card
catalog and the online terminals, still novel in the 1980s and used only for searching the catalog, to
remain within easy access from the entrance. New periodical issues and tables for reading reserves
materials needed to be located within sight of the service desk. Clark hoped that the newly redesigned
library would allow placing all book shelves in an unbroken sequence – the collection grew so much since
1973 that it appears that new shelving was placed wherever there was space, making it harder for patrons
to navigate the stacks. Lastly, he insisted on creating a separation between scholarly and what he called
“noisy” activities in the library, recognizing the importance of both individual and group use.
36
Although
he continued emphasizing the importance of practical arrangement of the library’s services and

33
Background Information for Chancellor Topping Regarding Renovation and Expansion of the USC
Architecture and Fine Arts Library, September 17, 1985. Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection,
University Archives.
34
Alson Clark, memo to Dean Robert Harris, 1982. Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection,
University Archives.
35
Clark, memo to Harris, 1982.
36
Minutes of the First Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library Project Committee, December
9, 1986. Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection, University Archives.
20
collections, he also wanted to preserve the aesthetic elements of the library’s design. As an architectural
historian Clark made the following unequivocal statements: “The library is the most impressive and
aesthetically pleasing facility of its kind in the area. The height, the windows, the tapestries and wood
shelves should be preserved if possible….Watt Hall is a ‘bald’ building which does not make appropriate
use of its material-reinforced concrete, but is based on a “Miesian” steel aesthetic. Additions of
skylights…would be minor masses in the whole composition, but they might add considerable needed
interest to the north side of the building, and might easily exploit the plastic qualities of concrete.”
37
As
the next chapter will show, considerable effort on the part of many parties went into the design of the
expanded library. The dean of the School of Architecture at that time, Robert Harris, was extremely
supportive of the library’s growing needs for physical space and instrumental in pursuing its expansion.
Nevertheless, the current AFA Library is also a tribute to Alson Clark’s perseverance in expounding on
the idea that the importance of the library is not only in its contents and services, but also in its design as a
container.

37
Clark, memo to Harris, 1982.
21
CHAPTER 3: THE HELEN TOPPING ARCHITECTURE AND FINE ARTS LIBRARY AS A DESIGNED SPACE,
1973-PRESENT

Discussions on expanding the AFA library were part of the overall plans to enlarge Watt Hall,
which included designing an amphitheater to be located on the east side of the building, and a later
addition of a third story.
38
The overarching framework for fund-raising, as promulgated in the mid-1980s,
was to develop the library as a center for art and architecture scholarship at USC. On a practical level, this
was also about improving accessibility: better collection space, given that by this time the library had
41,000 books, 21,000 periodicals and 166,000 slides; a larger space for reading and study; a larger and
better equipped space for what was called in various memoranda the Visual Documents Center (otherwise
known as the Slide Library), and a secure and adequate space for rare and expensive books.
39

The initial project budget for the expansion of the library was as follows:
40

Construction costs $1,020,000
Endowment for Maintenance $180,000
Fees and Other Costs $200,000
Furnishings and Equipment $100,000
Total $1,500,000

The USC Board of Trustees and University President James H. Zumberge identified the project,
which was part of an overall plan to expand Watt Hall, as a priority for “this decade and for the Campaign
for the University of Southern California.”
41
Chancellor Emeritus Norman Topping and his wife, Helen,
were an important force in fundraising for the expansion. The renovated library was, therefore, named for
Helen Elizabeth Topping, honoring her special interest in the University’s architecture and fine arts
programs and her support of the library through the Helen Topping Book Fund endowment, established in
1976. In 1985 the University secured a commitment from the Ahmanson Foundation for $1.5 million, and
this lay major ground for further fundraising activities.
The expansion was planned to the north of the existing library. This, combined with the
renovation of the existing interior and the construction of an additional mezzanine level, was to more than

38
Architectural Program for the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library, December 16, 1986.
Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection, University Archives.
39
A Description of the Renovation and Expansion of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts
Library, Presented to the Board of Directors, USC Friends of Fine Arts, June 26, 1986. Architecture and
Fine Arts Library collection, University Archives.
40
“Generic” Proposal for Renovation and Expansion of the Architecture and Fine Arts Library, 1985.
Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection, University Archives.
41
The Helen Topping Library at the University of Southern California, Statement of Need, April 1988.
Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection, University Archives.
22
double the available library space for all its functions.
42
Minutes of meetings and memoranda preserved in
University Archives indicate strong awareness of how the library’s spatial design would need to
accommodate the evolving mix of circulating books and non-circulating special collections. Because
patronage is important in defining any library, another goal of the expansion was to also increase the
number of study spaces by seventy five percent.
43
The Slide Library, which was then conceived of as a
programmatic Visual Documents Center, was placed in its own new mezzanine level. Designed to have
its own separate entrance, it was seen as an ideal location for faculty and graduate students to identify
visual resources and organize their presentation materials.
The original library in Watt Hall occupied 6,200 square feet. On September 23, 1986, ground was
broken to expand the library to nearly 13,000 square feet. Yet, even while construction was going on,
deliberations about functional and visual design continued, given that architectural design was also
perceived as a means of improving the stature of the “new” library. The library expansion project
committee included representatives from the departments of Architecture, Fine Arts, Art History,
University and USC Libraries administration, and the AFA Library. Emmet L. Wemple and Associates
was the landscape architecture firm. Graeme M. Morland, associate professor of architecture at USC, and
Welton Becket Associates, which during this period was acquired by Ellerbe Associates and subsequently
became known as Ellerbe Becket, Inc., were engaged for architectural design. Matthew Simpson, director
of libraries at Queens College in New York, was brought to the project as the library consultant. His
report, dated January 17, 1987, although focusing primarily on the functional aspects of the library
expansion, recommended retaining features of the 1973 interior. For example, he justified keeping the
slanted wood shelves, designed for the current journals collection by Graeme M. Morland, less on
aesthetic grounds but because they were conducive to browsing. He made both an aesthetic and a
practical recommendation to keep the high shelves, also designed by Morland, stating that: “high shelves
look charming and are in character of the library. They are not conducive to browsing, but are a means of
preservation.”
44
Simpson also noted that other items, such as the tapestries hung on the walls, provided
both ornamental and acoustical functions. The wooden journal and high shelves were retained, but the
tapestries were not, and their design and whereabouts are unknown.
During the meetings in the crucial period of 1986-1987 the library expansion committee
discussed designing a space which had views to the outside from as many interior points as possible, in
order to avoid the feeling of claustrophobia, given that the library was located in the basement. In

42
Statement of Need, 1988.
43
Statement of Need, 1988.
44
Matthew Simpson, Memo and Report, January 17, 1987. Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection,
University Archives.
23
promotional literature, the subterranean setting of the AFA Library was seen as a design opportunity for
promoting the proposed exterior features of the expansion, such as the terrace formed by the roof of the
new addition:
The north-facing terrace will provide a place for the exhibition of exceptional
sculptural works including projects by the students of the School of Fine Arts. It
will also provide an outdoor room for students and faculty to gather for
conversation and study. Outdoor ceremonies and special occasions for both
schools will take place in a garden-like atmosphere in the Sculpture Terrace.
45

[Figure 3.1 below]

Figure 3.1. A 1987 drawing by Welton Becket Associates of the proposed Sculpture
Terrace. Courtesy of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library archives.

Unfortunately, the terrace that was built on the north side of the library was not designed to be garden-
like, nor easily accessible. The third story addition to Watt Hall, designed by Christoph Kappeler, who
taught at the USC School of Architecture, was built in 2005. Its wide overhang further limited the use of
the terrace by casting a great shadow.

45
Statement of Need, April 1988.
24
The expansion committee met many times, and the surviving meeting minutes record discussions
which were, as to be expected, both philosophical and practical in nature. During the first meeting of the
committee, Alson Clark brought up specific practical needs that design issues should address, some of
which were mentioned at the end of the previous chapter.
46
There were discussions to relocate the Slide
Library to the lower level, under the mezzanine, for ease of access and oversight. In this scenario the
mezzanine was to be the entry level and control point for the entire library space. Other practical
discussions involved issues like the type of glass to use in the skylights, the location of the staff offices,
and how much of the book collection ought to circulate. In the 1980s a third of the collection was non-
circulating. This was not out of the ordinary in a disciplinary library specializing in art and architecture,
but times were changing and the developing mode of operations in the library profession was toward
greater unrestricted access to collections. The tension between balancing security for a relatively
expensive research collection, at least compared to other collections in the USC Libraries, and opening it
to broader circulation was evident in some of the meeting minutes.
As part of discussions on accessibility, the librarians on the committee also wanted to place a
large library sign on the terrace formed by the roof of the expansion. Minutes indicate that one of the
design faculty suggested that a bold and colorful neon sign be considered to mark the location of the
library. Although the sign, neon or otherwise, came to naught, this discussion indicated a recognition that
the underground location of the library, the center for art and architectural research, made it difficult to
find for anyone approaching Watt Hall. Several proposals by Graeme M. Morland for the design of
skylights to animate the exterior terrace also had as their goal greater visibility for the library. The more
interesting ones did not come to fruition, and this underground library continues to suffer from lack of
visibility on the exterior.
During the meeting of May 27, 1987, several elements were agreed on. One was the design of a
sunken patio to the east of the expansion. Its function was seen as a courtyard and also as an outdoor
reading area. [Figure 3.2, p. 25] The committee also stressed the importance of letting in as much natural
light into the library as possible. Another point of initial agreement was building exterior access to the
library in addition to the interior entrance through the basement of Watt Hall [Figure 3.3, p. 26], and a
separate controlled entrance for the Slide Library.
The development of the Slide Library was an important practical issue in the design of the
expansion, and several sets of minutes recorded discussions on its spatial independence from the rest of
the AFA Library and its exclusive accessibility to faculty and graduate students. The Slide Library also

46
Minutes of the First Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library Project Committee, December
9, 1986. Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection, University Archives.
25
needed to accommodate the anticipated growth of its collection to twice its size. None of the design
elements discussed at the May 27, 1987 meeting, however, were carried out. There is no record as to why;
however, libraries do not favor multiple entry and exit points, and this practical issue may be one reason

Figure 3.2. Plan of the expanded library, drawn by Welton Becket Associates in 1987,
showing the sunken courtyard in the upper right corner (north-east). Courtesy of the
Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library.

as to why the Slide Library does not have its own entry. One can only surmise that the sunken courtyard
was not built due to lack of funding, although there are no records preserved in University Archives.
The centerpiece of the expansion was the atrium of the reading room. Its centrality was not
merely structural, but also symbolic. In particular, the architecture faculty on the committee discussed
defining the atrium as a classical space, composed of two axes, formed by the new reading and
periodicals spaces, intersecting under a dome. The firm of Welton Becket Associates proposed a
26
segmental vaulted roof, as may be seen in Figure 3.3 below. This idea came out of the tradition of
eighteenth and nineteenth century library architecture. On October 17, 1987, Graeme M. Morland
presented a design which included a spherical skylight capping the new periodicals space, symbolically

Figure 3.3. An axonometric view drawn by Welton Becket Associates in 1987 of the
exterior of the library, showing a proposed staircase leading toward the sunken courtyard.
This would have been the exterior entrance into the library’s space. Neither the sunken
courtyard, nor the staircase, or the segmented vaulted roof over the expansion were built.
Courtesy of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library archives.

referencing a Rationalist perspective on libraries as sources of accumulated knowledge. Several meetings
were devoted to discussions on the design of the skylights, which also veered from the practical into the
more philosophical. On a practical level, it was decided that the skylights should be as transparent as
possible to maximize the infusion of natural light. But conceptually speaking, what was a skylight? A
frame? A sculptural piece? A sign, both directional and semeiotic? The resulting skylights definitely tend
toward the sculptural, although one recent visitor told me that they reminded her of stylized bus shelters.
They are a distinctive feature of the exterior of Watt Hall, and I refer to them as a sign when describing
the location of the AFA Library to visitors unfamiliar with the south side of USC campus, to wit:
27
“…when you see a concrete rectangular building with geometric glass pavilions on the plaza, you are in
the right place.”
In 1988, as the design concepts for the addition were firmed up, the following spaces became
opportunities for fundraising and naming:
47

• Atrium: $100,000
• Periodical Reading Room: $150,000
• Visual Documents Center: $100,000
• Sculpture Terrace: $100,000
• Rare Books Room: $25,000
• Seminar Room: $25,000

The subsequent two years saw not just construction and the purchasing of furniture, mostly from Herman
Miller, but also the pursuit of donors to name these spaces. The Helen Topping Architecture and Fine
Arts Library was inaugurated on October 4, 1990. As a result of naming opportunities and extensive
fundraising, the library featured the Alson Clark Reading Room, to house the study tables designed by
Graeme M. Morland, the Harry and Della MacDonald Periodicals Library, the John Stauffer Atrium, to
house the reference collection and the research services desk, the Torrey H. Webb Rare Books Reading
Room, the Standish K. Penton Family Slide Library, and the Salvatore Merendino Seminar Room.
[Figure 3.4, p. 28] The basic plan of the library is composed of two large rectangular spaces adjoining
each other, in which several building materials, particularly exposed concrete, plaster, wood, and glass,
combine to create functional spaces within a Modernist-Rationalist interpretation of a library that I “read”
as a temple to knowledge.
Access to the AFA Library is from the main basement corridor of Watt Hall. The entrance itself is
a cube-shaped space painted white with an exposed concrete ceiling at the height of about eight feet.
Coming through it, the visitor passes into a very large rectangular space that immediately soars up to
about twenty feet in height. [Figure 3.5, p. 29]
This portion of the library, which contains much of its book collection, the service desk, and the
staff offices, is approximately 120 feet long and forty feet wide. The immediate upward expansion of
space past the comparatively low entrance is sublime in its own way. The orderly rows of metal book
shelves bordered on the sides in blonde wood are eight feet high, leaving the space above them empty and
floating up toward the coffered concrete ceiling set with lights arranged in multiples of four. The ceiling
takes its stylistic cues from the coffered overhang on the exterior of Watt Hall. [Figures 3.6 and 3.7, pp.
30 and 31] This part of the library’s public use space is demarcated by an overhead pedestrian bridge

47
Statement of Need, 1988.
28

Figure 3.4. The AFA Library’s floor plan as depicted in the dedication brochure for the
expansion, dated October 4, 1990. The entry, located on the south side of the library, is
marked in this drawing by an arrow seen in the upper right. Courtesy of the Helen
Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library archives.

29

Figure 3.5. View of the entrance to the AFA Library in relation to the upward expansion
of space in the library itself. Photographed by the author, March 2012.

30

Figure 3.6. Photograph of the current arrangement of the original 1973 AFA Library
space. The mezzanine of the Slide Library is to the left, the high shelves and original
clerestory windows are to the right, with most of the interior space dominated by the
book shelves and the high coffered ceiling above them. Photographed by the author,
March 2012.

31

Figure 3.7. View of the concrete coffered overhang on the exterior of Watt Hall (seen
here on the east side), which is stylistically replicated in the ceiling of the 1973 library
space. Photographed by the author, March 2012.

32
located on the east side (to the right) of the entry, which visually directs the visitor’s gaze from the
entrance on the south toward the north wall that marks the boundary of the original 1973 library. Below
the bridge and behind it is the service desk and the staff work area. Thus, the pedestrian bridge, which is
at the height of eight feet, creates a visual separation of spaces, from those that are for the public to those
that are intended for the internal workings of the library. [Figure 3.8 below] Here, too, are located
collections that require staff mediation, such as the locked stacks special collections and the rare books
reading room, which has a large glass window so that it could be supervised from the service desk.

Figure 3.8. View of the pedestrian bridge that connects the AFA Library mezzanines. It
also separates the work area from the public spaces on the first floor of the library.
Photographed by the author, March 2012.

The staff offices along the south wall to the left of the entrance hide in the shadows created by the
lowered ceiling which supports the main mezzanine that houses the Slide Library. Such bordering of the
library’s spaces through gradation of ceiling height is a repetition of the pattern in the exterior courtyard
between Watt and Harris halls. The courtyard is spatially defined by two parallel pedestrian bridges that
connect both buildings, and by the raised ground level. [Figure 3.9, p. 33] These bridges are supported by
33

Figure 3.9. Some of the exterior elements, such as the two bridges connecting Watt and
Harris halls that also demarcate the courtyard between the two buildings, are repeated in
the spatial gradation of the interior of the AFA Library. Photographed by the author,
March 2012.

columns enclosed in the same type of striated concrete as the columns that support the main mezzanine in
the library. Only two such pillars are visible within the library’s space,
although in reality they are not the only structural elements that support the mezzanine. My own sense of
being enclosed arises from the fact that the staff offices are located underneath a broad eight foot-high
concrete overhang set with artificial lights, which obscures the expansive upwardly soaring space of the
book stacks.
The concrete walls of the library are smooth, but not perfectly so, with some variegation on the
surface that gives them a somewhat tactile texture. The grey expanse of the walls and of the coffered
ceiling is interrupted primarily by the blonde oak wood of the book stacks and of the high shelves.
Additionally, smooth white plaster walls run along the offices, highlighting the otherwise penumbral area
underneath the mezzanine. The most striking color in this part of the library is the band of deep blue
34
laminate that caps the high shelves located underneath the clerestory windows, which in 1973 were the
only source of natural light.
The entrance into the 1990 addition, the most striking space built during the expansion, is directly
visible from the entrance to the library and from the corridor outside. It is a square arch faced with smooth
white plaster. [Figure 3.10, p. 35] Its position in direct sight line of the corridor, its bright white color, and
the promise of natural light behind it, all intend to visually draw the visitor in this direction. As in the case
of the entrance to the library, the low overhang past the arch, which supports a narrow mezzanine, gives
way to a twenty-foot-high ceiling faced with rectangles of white acoustical tile. This, in turn, gives way to
six geometric skylights that pierce the entire length of the roof on the north side and become glass and
concrete-clad minimalist geometric sculptures seen on the exterior terrace above the library. [Figure 3.11,
p. 36]
Like the original 1973 space, the addition is rectangular. Its concrete walls are faced with oak
wood bookshelves that rise to eight feet. The ceiling on the south side is quite low, at around eight feet,
and forms the underside of the library’s second mezzanine. Given that the area below the mezzanine is
spatially the most confined and is the furthest away from the skylights, it is painted white to give it a
sense of brightness. [Figure 3.12, p. 37]
The space of the addition can be read figuratively as an interior of a church. The lengthy Alson
Clark Reading Room that runs on an east-west axis is like a nave, housing at its center orderly rows of
blonde oak wood study tables designed by Graeme M. Morland and built by a local artisan. The pedestals
that hold architectural models also fulfill a decorative function. As in a church, the reading room is
flanked along its length by two aisles, demarcated by concrete-clad columns. [Figure 3.13, p. 38] One
aisle runs along the south underneath the narrow mezzanine, the other along the north, rising upward
toward the cube-shaped skylights. The John Stauffer Atrium forms the north-south transept that intersects
with the nave formed by the reading room. On its north end, the atrium is capped by a wedge-like
structure that pierces the roof. On the north face of the wedge is a rectangular window; on its south side is
an oculus. All the cube-shaped skylights in the reading room have ceilings painted bright yellow. The
interior of the wedge is painted a very different color, a brown-tinged orange. The square-shaped Harry
and Della MacDonald periodicals reading area, located to the east of the intersection of the atrium and the
reading room, forms an apse capped by the large cube-shaped skylight. [Figure 3.14, p. 39] In keeping
with the church-like metaphor, the public copy area and the Salvatore Merendino Seminar Room, both
located on the west end of the reading room, form the narthex.
35

Figure 3.10. View of the entry from the artificially lit book stacks section into the
library’s reading room. The lowered ceiling of the entry gives way to the high space of
the reading room. Photographed by the author, October 2013.

36

Figure 3.11. Photograph of the pavilion-like concrete and glass skylights located on the
terrace above the library. Photographed by the author, March 2012.

37

Figure 3.12. View of the mezzanine that caps the south side of the reading room.
Photographed by the author, March 2012.

38

Figure 3.13. View of the nave-like reading room flanked by columns and aisles.
Photographed by the author, March 2012.

39

Figure 3.14. Photograph of the cube-shaped dome-like skylight that caps the “apse” of
the periodicals reading area. Photographed by the author, March 2012.

The design of the AFA Library is notably Modernist. Its plan is, with some structural constraints,
open, with spaces for specific functions discreetly demarcated through the use of columns and different
ceiling heights. For practical reasons the special collections rooms are designed as separate spaces
enclosed by walls and doors. The north wall that formed the edge of the library in 1973 was retained for
structural reasons. It separates the current library into two spatially roughly equivalent sections, one given
to the bulk of the book collection, the other housing most of the user spaces. Designing the addition was
not merely a practical matter of improving the library. Meetings minutes preserved show that the
committee and the architects had a strong interest in designing the addition to be open to natural light to
mediate the library’s subterranean setting. Considerable thought was also given to designing an exterior to
function as an extension of the library’s interior spaces. With the exception of the skylights that allow
natural light into the addition, many of these ideas were not implemented, most likely for funding reasons.
The next chapter will contextualize some of the design features of the library within the framework of
particular historic strands of Modernist architecture, those of Brutalism and of Rationalism.
40
CHAPTER 4: THE ARCHITECT’S INTENT: BRUTALISM, RATIONALISM, AND DESIGN WITH LIGHT

The AFA Library was designed in a particular architectural vocabulary, rooted in twentieth
century Modernism and Rationalism. The use of exposed concrete in the interior exemplifies the Brutalist
legacy in Modernist architecture. The term “Brutalism” appears to derive from the French “béton brut” or
“raw concrete.”
48
Le Corbusier may have been the first modern architect to address the use of béton brut
on a programmatic level, to convey a sense of the integrity of materials in his design with concrete. In
1960 he said in an interview for the magazine Zodiac: “I have used béton brut. The result: total fidelity to
the model, a perfect reproduction of the mould; concrete is a material that does not cheat; it replaces, it
cuts out the need for the trickster – coating. Béton brut says: I am concrete.”
49
Brutalism, and its mainly
British offspring, New Brutalism, were a utilitarian manifestation of Modernism that gained popularity
particularly in institutional architecture in the post-World War II period, lasting well into the 1970s.
50
As
Reyner Banham amply demonstrated in his 1966 book The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic, among the
greatest champions of Brutalist architecture were architects trained in the United Kingdom. The
interconnection between the aesthetic and the functional qualities of design with concrete appears
foundational to Brutalism, and in the post-War period it was framed within an ethical question of fidelity
to material. For example, two of Brutalism’s major proponents, Peter and Alison Smithson, while arguing
for Brutalism’s objectivity, stated that: “Brutalism tries to face up to a mass-production society, and drag
a rough poetry out of the confused and powerful forces which are at work. Up to now Brutalism has been
discussed stylistically, whereas its essence is ethical.”
51
According to Kenneth Frampton, Brutalism’s
ethical essence manifested itself in “obsessive concern for the expressive articulation of mechanical and
structural elements.”
52
However, Frampton also identified what he called a Palladian tendency toward
geometry and abstraction in the concrete designs by Le Corbusier for the early Villa Schwob (1912-1916)
and the famous Villa Savoye (1928-1931), and in the New Brutalism of the post-World War II British
architecture. Le Corbusier’s debt to classical geometry was already noted by his friend and co-founder of

48
David Hay, “Defending Brutalism: The Uncertain Future of Modernist Concrete Structures,”
Preservation (Winter 2013): 28.
49
Le Corbusier quoted by Phillippe Potié in Le Corbusier: le Couvent Sainte Marie de la Tourette (Paris:
Fondation le Corbusier 2001), 102. Original appeared in “Cinq questions à Le Corbusier,” Zodiac 7
(1960): 50.
50
In his book Modern Architecture: A Critical History Kenneth Frampton quotes Hans Asplund as
claiming to have been the first to apply the term Neo Brutalism mainly to works of English architects (4
th

ed., p. 262).
51
Alison and Peter Smithson, "The New Brutalism," Architectural Design (April 1957): 113.
52
Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 4
th
ed. (London: Thames & Hudson,
2007), 265.
41
Purism, Amédée Ozenfant. For example in 1921, writing under the pseudonym of Julien Caron in the
journal L’Esprit Nouveau, Ozenfant observed that as Le Corbusier was grappling with practical issues
related to the use of poured concrete (ciment armé) in the construction of Villa Schwob, he was also
concurrently working out ideas for a pure work of architecture as “postulated by a design in which the
masses were of a primary geometry, the square and the circle.”
53
According to Frampton, Le Corbusier’s
indebtedness to Palladian geometry, as exemplified in the volumes and spaces of the Villa Rotonda
(begun under Palladio in 1567, finished under Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1592), is particularly clear in his
design of Villa Savoye, despite its asymmetric peripheral rotation: “The almost square plan of the Villa
Savoye, with its elliptical ground floor and centralized ramp, may be read as a complex metaphor for the
centralized and biaxial plan of the Rotonda.”
54
Le Corbusier’s Maison Jaoul (1951-1955), in which the
architect rigorously applied his Modulor system of proportion based on the classical anthropometric scale
of the Vitruvian Man, is regarded by some as the first of New Brutalist building, and Frampton mentions
other examples of Palladian influence on New Brutalism.
55

The abstract order and clarity of Palladian geometry that influenced Brutalism and its offspring
also played a role within the second strand of the architectural idiom evident in the design of the AFA
Library, that of Rationalism. Panos Koulermos, one of the proponents of twentieth century Rationalist
architecture, who taught at the USC School of Architecture, wrote that the origin of this movement was
based on the growth of scientific thought in the philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Advances in scientific enquiry, developments in scientifically-based classification systems of the natural
world, and a growing interest in the study of historical (e.g., classical) canons of knowledge and geometry
were influential in the evolution of Rationalism in architecture. A significant feature in Rationalist
architecture, particularly as it developed in the twentieth century, was the emphasis it placed on light as a
frame for forms and surfaces.
56
According to Graeme M. Morland, also on the faculty at the USC School
of Architecture and another proponent of twentieth century Rationalism, this architectural idiom also
provided a context for a programmatically driven design.
57
Morland and Koulermos shared architectural
design ideas rooted in Rationalism. They were both educated in the United Kingdom, and met while
teaching at the University of Illinois in Chicago. At the instigation of dean Samuel T. Hurst both came to
USC in 1971/1972. In addition to teaching design classes, Morland and Koulermos were both involved in

53
Translation in Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 151. The original sentence appeared
in Julien Caron, “Une Villa de Le Corbusier, 1916,” L’Esprit Nouveau no. 6 (1921): 692.
54
Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 158.
55
Kenneth Frampton, Le Corbusier: Architect of the Twentieth Century (New York: H. N. Abrams,
2002), 14.153; Frampton, Modern Architecture, 262-268.
56
Panos Koulermos, 20
th
Century European Rationalism (London: Academy Editions, 1995), 7, 39.
57
Interview with Graeme M. Morland, September 19, 2012.
42
the growth of USC School of Architecture’s senior study abroad program in Como, Italy, a city important
in the development of twentieth century Rationalist architecture. The roots of contemporary Rationalism
lie in the Italian architecture of the 1920s and 1930s, particularly, although not exclusively, in the work of
Giuseppe Terragni. Despite Terragni’s association with the fascist government of Benito Mussolini, in the
late 1960s Rationalism became an important strand in European architecture. Terragni was little known in
the English-speaking world until Panos Koulermos published an article about him in the magazine
Architectural Design in 1963. This was followed by Peter Eisenman’s research, published in several
architectural journals.
58
In his 1990 book on Terragni, Thomas L. Schumacher included the first English
language translation of Terragni’s essay “The Construction of the Casa del Fascio in Como.”
59
In it
Terragni laid out the stylistic and programmatic principles that he applied to the exterior and interior
architecture of this administrative building, constructed between 1932 and 1936, considered to be an
important precedent for Rationalist design. Like Le Corbusier, Terragni emphasized the integrity of
materials which allowed him to conceive of the building as a unified whole: “Here [e.g., in the interior of
Casa del Fascio] the materials of the façade suit the solemnity of the spaces, honestly revealing the
structural elements (columns and reinforced concrete beams) adhering to the rhythm and proportions of
the external architecture.”
60
[Figures 4.1 and 4.2, pp. 43 and 44]
Structural elements provided the underlying framework for what Schumacher described as
surfaces derived from the layering and carving of the mass. In his analysis, Schumacher argued that the
fundamental characteristic of Terragni’s architecture, similar to Le Corbusier’s, was not its volumetric
capacity but its planarity.
61
Peter Eisenman, in describing the interior of the Casa del Fascio, noted
Terragni’s use of glass-block panels that either projected from or receded into the solid plane between
them, while at the same time also articulating the interior’s columnar structure.
62
Use of materials and the
abstract language of planarity, however, also played a programmatic role; after all, Terragni designed for
the state. For example, in his manifesto, Terragni wrote: “If for the functional and utilitarian purposes of

58
See for example, Panos Koulermos, “Terragni, Lingeri and Italian Rationalism,” Architectural Design
33 (March 1963): 108-136; Peter Eisenman, “From Object to Relationship, II. Giuseppe Terragni: Casa
Giuliani Frigerio, Casa del Fascio,” Perspecta 13-14 (1971): 36-65, as well as translations of Terragni’s
writings in various volumes of the journal Oppositions edited by Eisenman. For a critique of the role of
Rationalist architects in Fascist Italy, see Diane Y. Ghirardo, “Italian Architects and Fascist Politics: An
Evaluation of the Rationalist’s Role in Regime Building,” Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians 39 no. 2 (May 1980): 109-127.
59
Translated by Debra Dolinski in Thomas L. Schumacher, Surface & Symbol: Giuseppe Terragni and
the Architecture of Italian Rationalism (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1990), 144-159.
60
Terragni in Schumacher, 157.
61
Schumacher, Surface & Symbol, 104, 168.
62
Peter Eisenman, Giuseppe Terragni: Transformations, Decompositions, Critiques (New York:
Monacelli Press, 2003), 131.
43

Figure 4.1 The exterior of Giuseppe Terragni’s Casa del Fascio in Como (1932-1936)
provides the formal design language for the interior of the building, a detail of which may
be seen in Figure 4.2 on the next page. Image from Attilio Terragni, The Terragni Atlas:
Built Architectures (Milan: Skira, 2004), 158.
44

Figure 4.2. Detail of the interior of Giuseppe Terragni’s Casa del Fascio, with columns,
spatial volumes, and surfaces mimicking the design of the building’s exterior, as may be
seen in Figure 4.1 on the previous page. Image from Attilio Terragni, The Terragni Atlas:
Built Architectures (Milan: Skira, 2004), 178.

45
an office building a plaster was as good as a marble wall, for the representational nature of a building only
the marble wall will do.”
63
In his commentary on Terragni’s essay, Schumacher wrote that the open plan
of the ground floor of Casa del Fascio and its expanses of glass “not only better expressed Terragni’s
desire to create the ‘glass house of Fascism’ but also allowed for more flexibility in the use of the space,
not to mention the greater transparency and openness of the scheme….The functional distribution of the
Casa del Fascio was to embody the hierarchy of the Party and of Fascism itself.”
64

I have presented this brief description of Rationalism in contemporary architecture to indicate that
the formal qualities, as well as the functional aspects of the design of the AFA Library, described in the
previous chapter, were rooted in historic precedent. Holistically, some of the design elements of the
exterior of Watt Hall were extended into the interior of the library. These include the coffers of the
overhang, the smooth concrete surfaces, the design of the columns, and the overall rectangular and cubic
proportions. The library’s surfaces are composed of layered planes, and its interior space and its sources
of natural light are, to reuse Schumacher’s words, carved out of rectangular masses. This is particularly
evident under the mezzanines [Figure 4.3, p. 46] and the skylights.
From the beginning, space for the AFA Library was allocated in the basement of Watt Hall. An
important programmatic element in Rationalist architecture, and one that plays a conspicuous role in the
library, is the incorporation of light, particularly sunlight, as an integral part of the design language. A
narrow band of clerestory windows, situated just above exterior ground, was the only source of natural
light into the library. Since the library’s design is part of the overall design of Watt Hall, itself a
symmetrical building, this feature paralleled the basement clerestory on its south side, which brought
natural light into the first year design studios. When the expansion of the library was under discussion in
the 1980s, Graeme M. Morland was hired as consulting design architect to work with Ellerbe Becket to
ensure that the addition was in keeping with the original design language, and also with the curricular and
research needs of the library’s primary constituencies in the schools of Fine Arts (which at that time
included Art History) and Architecture. In keeping with the precepts of Rationalism, incorporation of
light became an important feature of the addition.
65
This was strongly advocated for by Panos Koulermos,
a proponent of Rationalist architecture, and it was embraced for functional and aesthetic reasons by other
members of the design committee.

63
Quoted in Schumacher, Surface & Symbol, 144.
64
Schumacher, Surface & Symbol, 159.
65
Unless specifically footnoted, discussion on the design with natural light in the AFA Library is based
on the interview conducted with Graeme M. Morland on September 19, 2012.
46

Figure 4.3. The carving of the planes and the layering of the spatial mass in the reading
room of the library may be seen in this photograph taken by the author, March 2012.

47
As an employee of the library and a library user, I find the presence of natural light in this
basement location to be an attractive feature, although I did not analyze it in any depth until the summer
of 2011. In August of that year a small group of graduate students in arts journalism, from the USC
Annenberg School of Communication, did a summer project on the AFA Library, during which they
discussed its design with me. One of the students pointed to the sunlight crossing diagonally through the
northern part of the reading room and suggested that the smooth exposed concrete wall was a great canvas
for natural light. Indeed it is. [Figure 4.4 below] During the many tours that I conduct annually of the

Figure 4.4. The north-facing wall of the reading room is a receptive canvas to light
coming from the skylights above. Photographed by the author, Summer 2013.

AFA Library, I point out some of the design features of the library’s space. I refer to natural light as an
important element of the design, not just because of the skylights, but also because, as in a church, it
infuses interior spaces. The allusion to church design, at least according to anecdotal evidence, appeals to
tour participants, not all of who are affiliated with the fields of art or architecture. I can only speculate
that this may be because church architecture is a typology that is at least somewhat familiar to many. I
48
mentioned the role of light in church architecture during my interview with the consulting architect.
Graeme M. Morland, who had some experience working on church design, concurred that in churches
light coming from above functioned both on a practical and symbolic levels. Given that he studied and
taught in Glasgow, the library at the Glasgow School of Art, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh
(opened ca. 1905) also provided an example for designing with natural light. Mackintosh’s architectural
language was very different from that used in Watt Hall. What impressed Morland was the fact that
Mackintosh took great care in building a relationship between the natural and artificial light in this
otherwise dark, wood-paneled, tall and narrow space. Elsewhere it has been noted that the visual power of
this library’s interior derived particularly from Mackintosh’s ability to invoke “cosmical symbolism,” an
idea advanced by William Richard Lethaby in his book Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth, published in
1892. Lethaby’s notion that art and architecture were an embodiment of the spiritual quest and of
communion with nature was influential in the Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in
architecture. In the Glasgow School of Art’s library natural light coming from tall windows illuminates
the slender wooden posts in the interior, as if filtering through trees in a forest clearing. The thirteen
stylized lamps, suspended in a group from the high ceiling, blaze as a sunburst in the center of the
library’s space.
66
Late nineteenth century mystical symbolism notwithstanding, Morland admired the
clarity of the relationship between the natural and artificial light in Mackintosh’s design. He conceived of
natural light in the AFA Library’s reading room as also functioning in a dialogic way, in this case
communicating the location of the sun to the users of this underground space.
One of the essential challenges of the expansion project was giving library users a sense that
interior spaces extended to the outside, and that light from the outside was an integral part of the interior.
Resolving the challenge of lighting the library was a question of architectural design. For example, as
mentioned in the previous chapter, the design architectural firm Ellerbe Becket presented the idea of
building a segmental vaulted roof over the reading room. This would have greatly elevated and expanded
the interior upward, providing additional surface for the infusion of light in the manner reminiscent of
Beaux-Arts classicism, as well as of the library designs of Étienne-Louis Boullée. [Figure 4.5, p. 49] This
design element was eventually rejected, possibly in part because Watt Hall would have towered over the
segmental vaulted roof, limiting the input of natural light into the basement as may be seen in the drawing
reproduced in Figure 3.3 on page 26 in the previous chapter. Nevertheless, the idea of a classical roof,
such as a dome, continued to be under deliberation as late as 1988. The minutes of the AFA Library

66
Andrew McMillan, James Macaulay and William Buchanan, “A Tour of the School,” in Mackintosh’s
Masterwork: The Glasgow School of Art, ed. William Buchanan (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers
University Press, 2004), 120.
49

Figure 4.5. Ellerbe Becket’s proposal, dated 1987, for the reading room features a segmental
vaulted roof. Courtesy of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library archives.

Project Committee for February 9 of that year indicate that Panos Koulermos, who originally advocated
for the rectilinear forms for the roof-top skylights, proposed to consider designing a dome over the atrium
that would rest on columns forming a continuation of the library’s subterranean columns. In keeping with
the symbolic nature of library spaces, discussions on the design of the roof-top elements included
references to classical and religious structures, particularly in relation to the atrium of the addition.
Koulermos, as a proponent of Rationalism, described the atrium as a classical space formed by the
meeting of two axes, thus appropriate to be capped by a dome. Robert Harris alluded to the atrium as a
“screen behind the main altar.”
67
In either case, the space of the atrium was seen as a ceremonial element.
This idea was further elaborated in April 1988: “At the heart of the new library addition is a central

67
Minutes of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library Project Committee Meeting,
February 9, 1988. Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection, University Archives.
50
atrium which separates two reading rooms. The Atrium provides both a grand skylit entrance and a place
for the exhibition of art books and other scholarly works.”
68
Using the expansion as an opportunity to
bring natural light into the library also involved discussions that moved from questions of design to issues
of functionality and the symbolic nature of libraries.
Some of the early deliberations on how to bring more light to the ground floor also included the
possibility of designing a sunken plaza on the library level, either to the east or to the north. This would
have added an exterior space as an extension of the library’s interior, since the climate of Southern
California is conducive to the interlinking of the indoor and the outdoor. The plaza, which in the plans
reproduced in the previous chapter in Figures 3.2 and 3.3 (pp. 25 and 26), could also be approached
directly from above via separate stairwells, was conceived of as a multi-functional space, to serve as an
exhibition venue for the schools or for outdoor lectures. It would have also functioned as an ideal source
of natural light and airiness for the library. The plaza, however, did not progress beyond a phase in the
discussion. I can presume several pragmatic reasons for this. The building of the plaza would have
necessitated additional security measures for the library. It would have also entailed the rethinking of
spaces for the library’s collections, to ensure materials and furnishings were not damaged by the
continuous encounter with sunlight. Nevertheless, the sunken plaza represented an intriguing idea to
aesthetically and functionally expand the AFA Library.
As design discussions settled in favor of skylights, Graeme M. Morland presented a proposal for
a sphere over the atrium, an idea built on Panos Koulermos’s recommendation for a dome. The pre-
formed concrete sphere was to sit on top of a glass perimeter above the current periodicals area. [Figure
4.6, p. 51] Morland thought that the sphere, an unusual shape in the landscape of a rectilinear campus,
would provide a strong visual draw and a stunning approach to the library. Its glass perimeter would
function as a source of natural light. However, the sphere turned out not to be a practical idea, given that
water and debris could have easily accumulated underneath it, and was not realized because of budget
limitations. Morland also proposed skylights in the shape of a pyramid, which would also have made for a
stunning-looking exterior. In the ensuing deliberations, the pyramid shapes were discussed as either
elements framing the interior atrium, or as separate sculptural pieces.
69
[Figure 4.7, p. 52] Morland
suggested making the pyramidal structures as transparent as possible through use of glazed glass,
conceiving of them both as sculptures and as frames for light. The proposed pyramids, as well as the
rectangular shape of both Watt Hall and of the AFA Library, served as inspiration for the design of the

68
Statement of Need, 1988.
69
Minutes of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library Project Committee Meeting,
February 9, 1988.
51

Figure 4.6. A preliminary architectural study for a sphere as a sculptural element
designed to draw attention to the library, 1980s. Courtesy of Graeme M. Morland.
52

Figure 4.7. A preliminary sketch for several pyramidal skylights designed to carve
interior library spaces out of the plane of the roof, 1980s. Courtesy of Graeme M.
Morland.

53

table lamps and the display stands for the architectural models, located in the reading room.
70
[Figure 4.8,
p. 54]. While neither the spherical nor pyramidal exterior shapes came to fruition, the impetus behind
them was directly related to Rationalist architecture where platonic forms and proportions comprised a
basic element for design ideas.
The finished skylights are cubes, except for one, which is in the shape of an acute angled wedge.
They are also abstract light sculptures, and make a statement about the importance of light in architectural
design. According to Morland, a person exiting the elevator in the corridor outside of the library can
immediately see natural light streaming through the oculus in the wedge skylight located on the opposite
side of the atrium. Natural light hits the reflective glass on the inside of the vertical face of the wedge,
bounces to the interior concrete wall below it, and from there to the floor, making for a kind of a “pre-
announcement” of sunlight to the artificially lit corridor. To further alleviate the subterranean feeling in
the library, natural light comes from the other glass skylights, creating a variety of light patterns during
the day that also change seasonally. Sometimes the light and shadow effects of the skylights form precise
geometric shapes on the walls. At other times the light is soft and floods the spaces underneath in a
diffuse manner. Depending on the season and the time of day, light coming through the oculus in the
wedge creates a pattern in the center of the concrete wall below it at mid-day and early afternoon. At the
same time the entire library is also lit by artificial lights, a particularly important feature of the 1973
library space, which no longer has direct access to natural light.
Other interior design features enhance the platonic geometry of the skylights and complement the
dialog of natural and artificial light. As mentioned earlier, the penumbral areas formed by the
overhanging mezzanines are painted a flat, non-glossy white that spreads the artificial light in these
locations. Below the clerestory of the main book stacks area there is a wide band of blue laminate. The
cube-shaped skylights have ceilings painted yellow, and the wedge-shaped skylight has a wall that is
painted orange. I originally took these colors, applied to rectilinear geometric surfaces, to be inspired by
the grid-like compositions of the painter Piet Mondrian. These wall surfaces occasionally shimmer with
light, and provide a welcome contrast to the flat grey of the concrete. Graeme M. Morland explained their
function in somewhat different terms. The blue laminate, which was not in the 1973 design, was part of
the program to get more light and color into the main stacks room during the expansion. The orange of the
wedge and the yellow of the skylights were selected because they were warm colors that invoked various

70
The notion of total design is not uncommon in architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the main
proponents of such practice. His Barnsdall House in Los Angeles is an example of total design.
Coincidentally, the built-in table lamp in the living room of the Barnsdall House displays a geometry
similar to the built-in lamps in the AFA Library’s reading room desks, combining the shape of an inverted
pyramid with that of a rectangle.
54

Figure 4.8. The geometry of the pyramid and of the rectangle is reproduced in the shape
of the table lamp (above) and of the display stand for architectural models (below),
designed by the architect for the interior of the AFA Library. Photographed by the author,
Summer 2012.

55
effects of sunlight, while also complementing the hues of the oak bookshelves, tables, lamps, and
pedestals holding the architectural models. In a sense, these colors engaged in their own dialog with light.
In his review of twentieth century Rationalist architecture in Europe, Panos Koulermos argued
that it was not just an architecture notable for the clarity of its programmatic design, but that it also paid
attention to its surroundings.
71
It is, therefore, somewhat unfortunate that the grounds above the library
did not include landscaping. According to Morland’s recollections, a more holistic approach to the
landscape did not really begin at USC until the late 1970s, when new buildings commissioned on campus
allocated a percentage of the funds to landscaping. Nevertheless, the concrete terrace that was built above
the library is not conducive to either formal or informal activities, and although it was a site for
celebration when the expanded library opened in 1990 [Figure 4.9, p. 56], it is used only occasionally for
temporary course-related exhibitions. The terrace is easily visible, but is difficult to get to. It is visually
separated from its surroundings by an elevated landscaped border and a concrete wall. The pedestrian
ramps leading to the terrace are hidden from view, creating an immediate impression that the way to get
to it is somewhere through Watt Hall itself. In its current incarnation it is a piece of dead hardscape.
Until the middle of the first decade of the twenty first century, Watt Hall had two stories above
ground. This was taken into account during the design of the library’s addition in the late 1980s. [Figure
4.10, p. 57] As mentioned earlier, Watt Hall’s third story, finished in 2005, has a wide overhang, limiting
the range of sunlight on the skylights of the library. Furthermore, the 2004 addition of the Locker
Hydrocarbon Research Institute wing built during the expansion of the Stauffer Science Lecture Hall,
located to the immediate north of Watt Hall, further limited the library’s northerly exposure. In addition,
according to the architect, the formal placement of Locker Institute’s entry, which faces into the driveway
of Bloom Walk rather than aligning with the library’s main cube-shaped skylight, completely ignores the
“formal axial cues” of Watt Hall, thus undermining an important tenet of Modernist architecture – that of
its relationship to its surroundings.
72

The design language seen in the exterior of Watt Hall is incorporated into the library’s original
space, as well as into the addition. The concrete and glass-based approach to the AFA Library’s forms
and spaces, combined with a programmatic incorporation of natural light, root its design in the Rationalist
architecture of the mid-to-late twentieth century. This is perhaps an appropriate architectural idiom for its
basement location, where the chthonic space incorporates a rational classification of knowledge, and
where the dark opens to light.

71
Koulermos, 20
th
Century European Rationalism, 85.
72
Graeme M. Morland, note to the author, September 2013.
56

Figure 4.9. A photograph from 1990, showing an event on the terrace that forms the roof
of the AFA Library. Courtesy of Graeme M. Morland.

57

Figure 4.10. This sectional drawing from the late 1980s of the wedge and of the main
skylight above the atrium shows their role in framing natural light, and their relationship
to the exterior of Watt Hall on the right. Architect’s annotation on the bottom reads:
“Occulus of sunlight on floor and wall seen from entry to library.” The annotation on the
top states: “Later addition of 3
rd
floor reduces sunlight to terrance and library below.”
Courtesy of Graeme M. Morland.

58
CHAPTER 5: PRESERVING THE AFA LIBRARY AS A WORK OF ARCHITECTURE: RECOMMENDATIONS

The design of the AFA Library takes its cues from the overall architectural language of Watt
Hall, and incorporates them within the precedent of twentieth century Italian and European Rationalism.
The library greets users uninitiated into the history of modern architecture with spaces enclosed in
exposed grey concrete, capped with glass, and framed in some places in color. Its materials and color
scheme occasionally inspire a comment, as in the case of the graduate student in arts journalism who
interpreted the layers of natural light as if they were painted on the concrete wall, or that of a recent
visitor who said he wished he could design his house to look like the AFA Library, or the written
responses on the USC Libraries’ annual surveys that indicate that some students like to study in the AFA
Library in part because of its distinguished interior. As a space designed in a specific architectural
language using hard and harsh materials, and constrained by its underground location, the library does not
always inspire a positive or welcoming feeling. The height of its ceilings, while awe inspiring, is not
utilitarian. Its vertical expanse physically constrains the functional needs of the library to continuously
reexamine the use of its spaces so as to better accommodate growing print collections, expanded access to
new technologies, and a demand for study spaces in an increasingly residential, 24/7 campus.
Examples of plain unadorned concrete architecture, such as Watt Hall, are unusual on the
University Park campus. Despite its origins in 1880, USC is primarily a twentieth century campus and has
plenty of contemporary architecture.
73
Among the many twentieth century buildings are a considerable
number designed in the 1960s and early 1970s by such American Modernists as William L. Pereira and
Associates, and Edward Durrell Stone. They lack clearly defined façades, yet many also avoid the heavily
massed geometric exteriors that are often associated with institutional buildings designed in the Brutalist
mode. Writing about Pereira’s design of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Los
Angeles Times architectural critic Christopher Hawthorne made the following observation about post-
World War II Modernism in American architecture, which also provides a context to examining the built
Modernist legacy of USC: “Stylistically it [e.g., LACMA] was typical of 1960s civic architecture in
America. It was faithful to the basic rules of Modernism – flat roofs, spare forms, lean silhouettes….As
with Stone…Pereira was looking in the 1960s to establish a new direction for modernism, one in which
some limited ornament and nods to history were no longer taboo. The most obvious reflection of this
attitude in the LACMA buildings comes in the slender concrete columns that give rhythm to their

73
Nevertheless, Watt Hall is not architecturally unique. Hoffman Hall for Business Administration by I.
M. Pei (1967), and the Musick Law School building by Albert C. Martin and Associates (1970), are both
notable examples of Brutalist architectural design on the University Park campus.
59
exteriors.”
74
Buildings designed by Pereira and Stone on the University Park campus display a similar
subversion of Modernist orthodoxy, such as, for example, the recurrent arches, inner courtyards, and roof
overhangs of the Von KleinSmid Center, the Social Sciences, and the Andrus Gerontology buildings, all
by Edward Durell Stone, or the molded window awnings of the Ahmanson Center and the columns
carving out the exterior of Vivian Hall, both by William L. Pereira, or the framed windows that vertically
extend the pilotis of the Annenberg Building designed by Archibald Quincy Jones.
75
[Figure 5.1 below,
and Figure 5.2, p. 60]

Figure 5.1. View of the Von KleinSmid Center building and campanile in the background
(erected in 1966), and of the Social Sciences building in front of it (erected in 1968).
Both are among the buildings designed by Edward Durell Stone at USC. Stone’s
incorporation of arches on the outer core of each building, coupled with the overhanging
eaves of the roofs, were a departure from the more severe Miesian Modernism of the
post-World War II period. The same is true for William Pereira’s use of rhythmic, almost
decorative, elements, such as the concrete window awnings on the Ahmanson Center

74
Christopher Hawthorne, “Shadowed Plaza,” Los Angeles Times (July 21, 2013): E10.
75
The Ahmanson Center, designed by William Pereira, is sometimes referred to as the cheese-grater
building thanks to the repetitive shape of its window awnings.
60
building (William L. Pereira & Associates, 1964), seen in Figure 5.2 below. Both
buildings photographed by the author, Spring 2013.

Edward Killingsworth’s original two-story Watt Hall, as seen in a 1974 watercolor presentation
drawing [Figure 5.3, p. 61], was conceived of as a pavilion-like structure, similar to some of the hotel and
commercial buildings Killingsworth designed elsewhere. As built, however, Watt Hall adheres more
closely to the severe geometry and unadorned, uniformly designed surfaces of mid-century Modernism,
and unlike its representation on the presentation drawing, has more concrete and is grey in color. Watt
Hall is also among a small number of buildings on campus that completely lack any reference to the
reddish brick and beige stone color scheme of the mostly Italian Renaissance-style buildings from the
1920s and 1930s that characterize the historic fabric of USC. The majority of twentieth century buildings
and almost all the buildings added since the turn of the twenty first century pay homage to the red and
beige color combination. Significantly, the third story addition to Watt Hall was carried out in keeping
with its original Brutalist architectural language.
61

Figure 5.3. A 1974 watercolor of Watt Hall by the office of Edward Killingsworth. This
airy pavilion-like building with a coffered roof overhang is seen from the northeast. As
built, Watt Hall appears to be considerably more massive, its exposed concrete exterior
much more grey in color. Reproduced with permission of Architecture and Design
Collection, Art Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara.

Generally speaking, the visual harshness of exposed concrete Brutalist architecture poses some
difficulties for historic preservation. Barry Bergdoll, the chief curator of architecture and design at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York, neatly summarized the reason: “Brutalism was supposed to bring
back all sorts of things like craft — the concrete wasn’t smooth, you could feel the hand of the worker
there. But it was perceived in almost the exact opposite way. It’s one of the great public relations failures
of all time. Most people think of Brutalist architecture literally — as aggressive, heavy, boding and
forbidding.”
76
Concrete does not age well, although a concrete building does not have to be old to grate
on the aesthetic sensibilities of its users. An anecdotal case is that of the Art and Architecture building at
Yale University (1958-1964), a high profile commission designed by Paul Rudolph, a proponent of
Brutalism. Rudolph’s building was finished to great critical acclaim, in part for departing from the
Miesian glass boxes of Modernism, and in using light and space to reflect both the building’s purpose and
its surrounding environment. Yet praise quickly subsided in response to the abrasive texture of the

76
Quoted by Robin Pogrebin in “Architecture’s Ugly Ducklings May Not Get Time to be Swans,” New
York Times (April 7, 2012).
62
concrete and to the functional difficulties with the building’s daily use. According to Tony Monk, “This
dissatisfaction reached a climax when the top two floors were gutted by fire in 1967. It was rumored at
the time that this tragedy was the expression of disgruntled students and was the ultimate demonstration
of their displeasure.”
77
Although there was no concrete evidence that it was the students who set fire, “this
possibility was nevertheless a plausible consequence of the degree of antagonistic feeling engendered by
the building and felt by some of its irate critics.”
78
Despite this controversial history, decades later Yale
University invested into restoring the building’s altered interior to the original, in recognition of its
importance as a significant example of American Modernism.
A recent article in the magazine Preservation, published by the National Trust for Historic
Preservation, used another building designed by Paul Rudolph, the 1971 Orange County Government
Center in Goshen, New York, to broadly discuss the difficulties with developing appreciation for the
Brutalist buildings of the 1960s and 1970s.
79
DOCOMOMO, the International Committee for the
Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites, and Neighborhoods of the Modern Movement, has
engaged in a variety of activities to grow a generation of fans and preservationists to promote an aesthetic
and historic recognition of the legacy of twentieth century Brutalism.
80
Post-World War II Brutalism is
reaching the mark of half a century, an important time frame in the evaluation of historic significance for
works of architecture in the United States. What, if anything, should this mean in the case of the AFA
Library?
I would argue that in such a very specific case of a designed interior within a larger building
located on a growing academic campus, the standards for historic evaluation and preservation of
properties, as codified by the U. S. Department of the Interior, may serve as potential guideposts for
future planning.
81
While portions of the university campus may qualify as potential historic resources,
USC has undergone many alterations throughout its history. As it grew in the post-World War II period
from a regional institution, the university demolished some of its buildings. Among them were the
College of Liberal Arts, known as Old College, which was the first brick building on campus (designed

77
Tony Monk, The Art and Architecture of Paul Rudolph (Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Academy,
1999), 39.
78
Monk, Paul Rudolph, 39.
79
David Hay, “Defending Brutalism: The Uncertain Future of Modernist Concrete Structures,”
Preservation (Winter 2013): 26-31.
80
As, for example, discussed by Sarah Sher in “Et tu, Beton Brut?” in an article published on the
DOCOMOMO-US web site on May 17, 2012, http://www.docomomo-us.org/news/et_tu_beton_brut
81
National Park Service, “National Register of Historic Places Program: Fundamentals,”
http://www.nps.gov/nr/national_register_fundamentals.htm; and National Park Service, “Standards for
Preservation and Guidelines for Preserving Historic Buildings,”
http://www.nps.gov/hps/tps/standguide/preserve/preserve_standards.htm

63
by John C. Austin, cornerstone laid in 1884, dedicated in 1887, demolished in 1948), buildings housing
some of the departments established in the early decades of its existence, such as Architecture, Music, and
Religion, and War War II-era barracks. Within the first decade of the twenty first century, the buildings
housing the School of Cinematic Arts and the campus center were replaced by new and considerably
larger structures (Cinematic Arts Complex, Urban Design Group, 2010-onward; Tutor Campus Center,
AC Martin Partners, dedicated in 2010). It is not easy to remember what, if anything, was replaced by
Parkside and other nearby residential halls, designed by Cannon Dworsky and others, and built between
2001 and 2007 on former parking lots, or by the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Ronald Tutor Hall (AC
Martin Partners, 2005). Nevertheless, despite the many changes to its built landscape, the university has
also retained much of its building stock, starting with the original building now known as Widney Alumni
House (Ezra F. Kysor and Octavius Morgan, 1880). Many of the buildings, rather than being demolished
and replaced, were expanded and added to over time, including Watt Hall and the AFA Library.
As an architectural space that has been considerably expanded to double in size less than a quarter
century ago, and which is part of a building that has recently been altered, the AFA Library is not a
significant historical resource that falls under the guidelines for preservation. However, it is an example
of a major architectural idiom that is rare on the USC campus. The addition to the library was attuned to
the original design, while taking the opportunity to extensively open an underground location to natural
light in a programmatic way. The design of the addition was also sensitive to the functional needs of the
library to expand and accommodate a growing physical collection while providing more space for a
variety of user functions. The university and its library system will continue developing future plans for
uses of such spaces as the AFA Library that may require considerable re-purposing of its facilities. These
may include reorganizing the bulk of the collection through the installation of compact shelving in the
original library space, redesigning and repositioning the public service desk, and rethinking and altering
the existing spaces, such as the support staff area behind the service desk, the Torrey H. Webb Rare Book
Reading Room, both mezzanines, and the Salvatore Merendino seminar room, so as to provide more
flexibility in adjusting them to the changing needs of the academic departments and of the student
population. In case of future alterations, it would be appropriate to invest in design that, like the 1990
library addition, is sensitive to the Modernist architectural language, particularly preserving the sense of
height and openness of the library’s main spaces and its incorporation of natural light. National standards
for preservation of architectural resources provide guidance for such decision-making.
82
The design of the
AFA Library reflects a particular architectural idiom and an interpretation of the library’s mission and

82
My recommendation follows the language of standard #5, “Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and
construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved,”
http://www.nps.gov/hps/tps/standguide/preserve/preserve_standards.htm.
64
function. Elements of both, but particularly of the architectural fabric, are worthwhile to retain for
posterity.
83
Anecdotal evidence and statistics on the usage of the USC Libraries indicate that while
students need places for study, many continue to prefer library places for this purpose. The historic
appreciation of the reading rooms in libraries as a place for contemplation continues to endure, and is
worthy of spatial preservation.
Although some of the spaces of the AFA Library may in the future be appropriated for non-
library services such as departmental offices or classrooms, the reading room ought to continue in its
current incarnation as a designed public space. It is particularly suited for student study, incorporating
light from the exterior, a benefit of the climate of Southern California. In addition, providing access to
print materials will continue in the fields related to art and architecture, and this will necessitate retention
of considerable amount of space for library collections. It may also be useful to consider retaining most of
the furnishings, lamps, and, if possible, the bookshelves, all designed by the architect specifically for this
library. Even these pose a dichotomy between preservation and future needs. The current large and
imposing service desk, designed by Graeme M. Morland, was built for a different era in library services.
It contains sections devoted to functions that are no longer performed. Among them are the built-in
drawers for the Dewey shelflist and shelves to house paperwork that was once used in the quotidian
administration of circulation functions, such as patron registration, book check-out slips, information
about fines, etc., all of which have long become computerized.
84
Given the amount of space that this no
longer entirely functional U-shaped desk takes up, it may become dispensable during the repurposing of
the library’s spaces. Functionally, the library’s service desk should be a piece of furniture that is flexible,
supports current needs, and facilitates spatial access to the rest of the library. Yet as Abigail van Slyck has
argued, library service desks offer material traces of the gendered history of the division of labor in
American libraries.
85
This historic perspective is unlikely to apply to the service desk in the AFA Library,
which has long been staffed by temporary student workers; nevertheless, van Slyck’s point is important in
providing an historic nuance in deliberating spatial and functional changes in libraries. Ultimately, the
AFA Library is an example of the ambiguity inherent in large cultural or academic institutions that face
both a practical need for change as well as a commitment to continuity within their built environment.

83
Keeping in mind standard #3: “Each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place,
and use.”
84
A shelflist was a catalog of cards arranged by call number, which contained librarians’ annotations as to
the exact location and availability of the collection items listed. In essence, it paralleled the arrangement
of books on the shelves of the various specialized locations within a particular library, and was often
much more up to date than the public card catalogs or the early computerized catalogs.
85
Abigail A. Van Slyck, “On the Inside; Preserving Women’s History in American Libraries,” in
Restoring Women’s History through Historic Preservation, ed. Gail Lee Dubrow and Jennifer B.
Goodman (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 145-160.
65
Bibliography:

Ephemera:

Memoranda, minutes of committee meetings, proposals for the expansion of the library, and dedication
programs are located in the University Archives and the archives of the Helen Topping Architecture and
Fine Arts Library, USC Libraries. Some are undated. I reproduced the “titles” as they appeared on the
first page of each typescript. Most of the ephemera are un-paginated.

Architecture and Fine Arts Library design committee. Typescripts of meeting minutes. 1980s. University
Archives.

Architectural Program for the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library, December 16, 1986.
Architecture and Fine Arts Library collection, University Archives.

Background Information for Chancellor Topping Regarding Renovation and Expansion of the USC
Architecture and Fine Arts Library. September 17, 1985. University Archives.

Clark, Alson. Typescripts of monthly and annual reports on the Architecture and Fine arts library. 1970s
and 1980s. University Archives.

A Description of the Renovation and Expansion of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library,
presented to the Board of Directors, USC Friends of Fine Arts. June 26, 1986. University Archives

“Generic” Proposal for Renovation and Expansion of the Architecture and Fine Arts Library. 1985.
University Archives

The Helen Topping Library at the University of Southern California. Statement of Need. April 1988.
University Archives.

Simpson, Matthew. Memo and Report. January 17, 1987. University Archives.

University of Southern California. The Helen Topping Architecture and Arts Library. Groundbreaking
Ceremony brochure, 1986. Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library archives.

University of Southern California. Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library. Dedication
Ceremony brochure, 1990. Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library archives.

University of Southern California. Ray and Nadine Watt Hall of Architecture and Fine Arts. Dedication
brochure, 1974. Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library archives.

Wheatley, Eleanor. Typescripts of monthly and annual reports on the Architecture Library, 1920s and
1930s.
Published:
“Architecture Library Holds Colorful Displays.” Daily Trojan 38 no. 52 (December 2, 1946): 1.
“Art Librarian Views Growth of University.” Daily Trojan 19 no. 13 (August 6, 1940): 2.
66
Banham, Reyner. The New Brutalism: Ethic Or Aesthetic? New York: Reinhold, 1966.
Brown, Charlotte. “Architecture Library at the University of Southern California.” Special Libraries 17
no. 6 (June 1926). Accessed January 28, 2013.
http://www.sla.org/speciallibraries/ISSN00386723V17N6.PDF.
Buchanan, William, ed. Mackintosh’s Masterwork: The Glasgow School of Art. New Brunswick, New
Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004.
Caron, Julien. “Une Villa De Le Corbusier 1916.” L'Esprit Nouveau no. 6 (1921): 679-704.
Dahlkild, Nan. “The Emergence and Challenge of the Modern Library Building: Ideal Types, Model
Libraries, and Guidelines, from the Enlightenment to the Experience Economy.” Library Trends 60,
no. 1 (2011): 11-42.
Eisenman, Peter. Giuseppe Terragni: Transformations, Decompositions, Critiques. New York: Monacelli
Press, 2003.
Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. 4th ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007.
Gargiani, Roberto. Le Corbusier: Béton Brut and Ineffable Space, 1940-1966: Surface Materials and
Psychophysiology of Vision. 1st ed. Lausanne, Switzerland: EFPL Press, 2011.
Hawthorne, Christopher. “Shadowed Plaza.” Los Angeles Times (July 21, 2013): E10.
Hay, David. “Defending Brutalism: The Uncertain Future of Modernist Concrete Structures.”
Preservation: The Magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation (Winter 2013): 26-31.
Howell-Ardila, Deborah. ““Writing our Own Program”: The USC Experiment in Modern Architectural
Pedagogy, 1930 to 1960.” Master’s thesis, University of Southern California, 2010.
Koulermos, Panos, and James Steele. 20th Century European Rationalism. London: Academy, 1995.
Latimer, Karen. “Collections to Connections: Changing Spaces and New Challenges in Academic Library
Buildings.” Library Trends 60, no. 1 (2011): 112-133.
Monk, Tony. The Art and Architecture of Paul Rudolph. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Academy, 1999.
Moorman, John A. “Library Buildings: Planning and Programming.” Library Trends 60 no. 1 (2011):
215-226.
National Park Service. “National Register of Historic Places Program: Fundamentals.” Accessed August
2013. http://www.nps.gov/nr/national_register_fundamentals.htm.

National Park Service. “Standards for Preservation and Guidelines for Preserving Historic Buildings.”
Accessed August 2013. http://www.nps.gov/hps/tps/standguide/preserve/preserve_standards.htm.
Naudé, Gabriel. Advice on Establishing a Library. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1950.
67
Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors,
General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You Through the Day. 1st ed. New York:
Paragon House, 1989.
Pogrebin, Robin. “Architecture’s Ugly Ducklings May Not Get Time to be Swans.” New York Times
(April 7, 2012).
Potié, Phillippe. Le Corbusier: le Couvent Sainte Marie de la Tourette. Paris: Fondation le Corbusier
2001.
Reid, Al. “Dolls, Pottery Exhibit.” Daily Trojan (April 10, 1946): 2.
Schumacher, Thomas L. Surface & Symbol; Giuseppe Terragni and the Architecture of Italian
Rationalism. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1991.
Sher, Sarah. “Et tu, Beton Brut?” DOCOMOMO-US (May 17, 2012). Accessed August 2013.
http://www.docomomo-us.org/news/et_tu_beton_brut.
Smithson, Alison and Peter. “The New Brutalism.” Architectural Design (April 1957): 113
Terragni, Attilio Alberto, Daniel Libeskind, and Paolo Rosselli. The Terragni Atlas: Built Architectures.
Milan: Skira, 2004.
Van Slyck, Abigail A. “On the Inside; Preserving Women’s History in American Libraries.” In Restoring
Women’s History through Historic Preservation edited by Gail Lee Dubrow and Jennifer B.
Goodman, 145-160. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Wikipedia. “Five Laws of Library Science.” Accessed summer 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_laws_of_library_science.
Wikipedia. “Library Bill of Rights.” Accessed summer 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_bill_of_rights.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Wallach, Ruth (author)

Core Title Preserving architect-designed functional spaces: the case of the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library, USC

School School of Architecture

Degree Master of Heritage Conservation

Degree Program Heritage Conservation

Publication Date 11/05/2013

Defense Date 11/05/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Brutalism,Heritage Conservation,Historic Preservation,Libraries,library architecture,Modernist architecture,OAI-PMH Harvest,Rationalist architecture

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Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Breisch, Kenneth A. (committee chair), Morland, Graeme M. (committee member), Zachary, Claude B. (committee member)

Creator Email rwallach@usc.edu,rwallach64@yahoo.com

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