A Building to Behold: Yale’s Beinecke Library

I was visiting Yale University last weekend when I came across a building that blew me away. From the outside, it’s a formidably modern structure…

Yale’s Beinecke Library: a building with translucent white-marble “windows” that gently filter-in light so the books inside are protected

…that contrasts with the (literally) old-school architecture of a university founded in 1701.

At Yale University, the modernist Beinecke Library is in the foreground and a Gothic Revival structure is in the background

Lest we judge a book by its cover, let’s look inside. In the middle of the interior is a six-story glass tower. It contains 180,000 rare books.

Yale’s Beinecke Library has a six-story glass tower of books inside the building

To protect the books from direct sunlight, the exterior panels are translucent white marble. During the day, subdued light filters through the veined marble.

Looking out from the inside at the Beinecke Library’s translucent marble ”windows”

The platform around the glass tower is an exhibit space that includes an original Gutenberg Bible from 1454.

An original Gutenberg Bible from 1454, displayed in a glass case at Yale's Beinecke Library

If you are ever at Yale, visit this building. It is called the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. In form and function, it is an impressive monument to the preservation of human knowledge.

The images are from Wikipedia’s Beinecke Library page.