Why Aren't You Studying at the GSD Loeb Library?

Heavily filtered (no shame) picture of the GSD Loeb Library By Hyemi Park

In a desperate plea to finish as much of my homework as possible before my weekend trip going home (aka how to make my bag as light as possible by not bringing my SLS 19 textbook so I can stuff it with free food courtesy of the 'rents), I braved the cold to walk to make the trek (jk, I live in the Inn at Harvard so I can't really complain) to Cabot Library. But while going down Quincy Street, I decided to take a chance (translation: I got lazy) and check out the Graduate School of Design's Loeb Library instead. I ended up finishing all my weekend readings for one of my class and having a nice change of scenery, so here's why you should make this awesome place your new study spot!

No Bag Checks (yes, this is real!)
We all know that it's the little things in life that make us happy, and for me, that is not having to open every compartment of my bookbag after a long and stressful night at Lamont. Yes, the Loeb Library has a turnstile like Widener and Lamont, but no, it does not have someone from Securitas checking your bags! You could imagine how I awkwardly slow-walked my way out of the library because I wasn't sure what was going on as I was leaving, but when I realized that no one was going to ask me to open up my bag, I found out the true meaning of #blessed.

Sidenote: did anyone other than me think that Securitas was a Harvard-centric security company, with a clever play on the word Veritas? Did anyone else not know that Securitas actually isn't Harvard-affiliated and serves countries all over the world?!

Chauhaus
It's like LamCaf, but cooler sounding! You can take a nice break from studying here with a snack courtesy of BoardPlus, and the back wall is entirely made of windows so you can bask in sunlight, that is if we all remember what that even is anymore. If you come during lunch, they even have real food and a salad bar! Take that, eclairs and that enormous carrot cake in the Lamont Cafe display!

Being surrounded by people who are really well-dressed and probably don't know you
Okay, the GSD students are all so incredibly well-dressed from head-to-toe. I literally stuck out like such a sore thumb wearing my raggedy free shirt from high school and pajamas masked as "fashion leggings," that everyone around me most definitely thought, "Does she even go here?" And to top it all off, you probably won't recognize anyone around you because they're all grad students! Don't you hate it when everyone in your Gov20 class has invaded Lamont the night before a paper is due and you slowly see people finishing and leaving while you're still on sentence #2 and desperately re-refreshing Facebook?

Cool art to look at while you study 
The first floor doesn't really have anything to brag about, but the bottom floor has a spiral staircase leading to it and miniature models of architecture! When I was getting sick of doing my reading, I looked to my right and stared for awhile at a mini-model of a building, which then made me wonder how long it took the artist to make this since I took several days at the beginning of the year to realize that my drying rack is not in fact supposed to collapse everytime I put my towel on it and that I had just made it incorrectly.