Sunday, December 14, 2014

Princeton Theological Seminary Library by EYP

Wandering around Princeton this morning, mainly looking for century-old neogothic things, I stumbled across a new building that I like a lot. This is Princeton Theological Seminary's Bicentennial Library, designed by Einhorn Yaffee Prescott architects of Boston.

This is what I look for in a new building: it evokes the past without slavishly copying any past style, and it incorporates some of the worthwhile features of modernism, such as big windows that let in lots of natural light.

 Above and below, pictures from the architects' web site.

I was especially pleased by the twelve carved medallions on the face of the tower, which you can't see in these pictures because it was a very dim day. I was even more pleased when I discovered that they had been saved from the old, now demolished library to be incorporated into the new. More architects should re-use bits of old, beloved buildings. Just as more architects should pay attention to the surroundings of their buildings and design things that will fit in.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello there!
I had stumbled across this blog post after googling images the building and I wanted to make a slight correction. When design and construction were started, it was designed by the architect Rayford Law of EYP. But through the latter end of design and construction the firm transitioned to Ewing Cole of Philadelphia. However, Law remained as the lead designer for the project after the change of firms by Princeton. Both firms even have the building on their websites as examples of their work but the Architect who designed the building remained the same. Thanks!
Regards,
A son who's proud of their father's work.