'Organic Design' Marks Lamont Library Plans

Functional design will be the keynote of the Lamont Undergraduate Library, whose construction begins this summer and should be finished by the fall of 1948.

The newly-completed plans, reproduced in part above and on page one of today's CRIMSON, reflect the announced intention of Keyes D. Metcalf, Director of the University Library, to construct a University library building "designed expressly to meet the requirements of undergraduate students."

Except for a few books on closed reserve, students will help themselves to study material when working within the building. The usual delay of checking books in and out will be largely eliminated, with students picking up their books as they pass through the stack area on the way to the reading room, and replacing them when finished.

The reading rooms are designed as study halls alone, and will house no book-shelves or reserve desks. Casting aside the classic theory that a hard workbench provokes great mental effort, the plans call for six rows of easy chairs in each of the reading areas, as well as blocks of working "stalls" where men can study and take notes in privacy.

Although the reading rooms will be "no smoking" areas, smoking will be allowed in most of the building. Five "smoking rooms," one on each of the three reading floors and two mezzanines, provide space for talking and relaxation on the premises. Typewriting booths adjoining two of these rooms will allow students to type notes directly from books in the Library.

Relief is promised for leg-weary undergraduate patrons of Widener Library, as entrances on two levels and a sunken ground floor will bring stair-climbing at the new building down to a minimum. The top floor of the Undergraduate Library will be as close to the yard level as the entrance of Widener is now.

A poetry room, a mezzanine devoted to periodicals, and a reference room are among the specialized study aids supplementing the five floors of open stacks which will hold undergraduate course reading material.

The architects have also provided a mysterious room marked over now.