Copley Sq., Boston, Massachusetts. County/parish: Suffolk.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places May 06, 1973. NRIS 73000317.
1 contributing building.Also known as:
The Central Library (also the Copley Square Library) is the main branch of the Boston Public Library (BPL), occupying a full city block on Copley Square in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It consists of the McKim Building, designed by Charles Follen McKim, and the Johnson Building, designed by Philip Johnson. The McKim Building, which includes the library's research collection, is designed in the Renaissance Revival and Beaux-Arts styles. The Johnson Building has the circulating and rare-books collections and is designed in the Brutalist style. Both sections of the Central Library are designated as Boston city landmarks, and the McKim Building is also a National Historic Landmark.
The Massachusetts state legislature set aside land in Back Bay for a central library in 1880, after the BPL's previous main library became overcrowded. Following several attempts to devise plans, including an unsuccessful architectural design competition, McKim was hired to design the modern McKim Building in 1887. Work began the next year, but construction was delayed partly due to cost overruns. Even after the McKim Building opened in February 1895, it took two decades for the building's artwork to be completed. To accommodate the collection's growth, the building was renovated in 1898 and expanded in 1918. Further growth in the collection prompted the BPL to consider expanding the Central Library in the mid-20th century, and the Johnson Building was thus developed from 1969 to 1972. The McKim Building was renovated in the 1990s, followed by the Johnson Building in the 2010s.
The McKim Building has a nearly-square floor plan surrounding an outdoor courtyard. Its three-story granite facade has a horizontal arcade and decorations such as medallions, with a main entrance facing east toward Dartmouth Street. Inside are several elaborately-decorated spaces, including a grand lobby and staircase, a second-story reading room called Bates Hall, and an elaborate third-floor lobby called Sargent Hall. The McKim Building is connected to the Johnson Building, which also has a square floor plan and a granite facade. The Johnson Building's facade has slanting lunette windows and a windowless upper section, and its interior is divided into square modules surrounding a central atrium. Over the years, the McKim Building's design has been praised, while the Johnson Building's design has received mixed commentary.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796738