Helmut Jahn continues hot streak with Mansueto Library at University of Chicago
By Lee BeyHelmut Jahn continues hot streak with Mansueto Library at University of Chicago
By Lee BeyArchitect Helmut Jahn is having a great run at the University of Chicago as of late—first with the award-wining thriller of a chiller plant on the school’s south campus, and now the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library that is expected to be completed this year near 57th and Ellis.
Located next (and in contrast) to Joseph Regenstein Library—a Brutalist structure designed by SOM’s Walter Netch that opened in 1970—the Mansueto’s most distinctive visual feature has already taken shape: an elliptical glass dome under which will sit a grand reading room, and an automated shelving and retrieval system, among other amenities.
More on the building once its completed. But for now, I like the visual dialog between the dome and the neighboring Henry Moore’s bronze 1967 sculpture Nuclear Energy,