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Lied Library
Las Vegas
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A New Paradigm
No longer programmed to be a place of hushed silence, today’s university library often
serves as a dynamic campus gathering spot for students, faculty, and staff. In this new par-
adigm, the library not only offers ready access to knowledge and information but also
accommodates contemporary student learning and living styles with sophisticated elec-
tronic information access, comfortable seating, and extended hours of operation. When
the Lied Library on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s -acre (-ha) main campus
opened in , it was hailed as just such a facility—both a superbly functional library
and a new campus social hub.
Site Signi f icance
Centrally located on a corner site and across from the main classroom complex, the
,-sq.-ft. (,-sq-m) library is easily reached by anyone in the university com-
munity as well as by the general public. Shaded exterior meeting places along the curved
southeast corner of the building provide generous seating and places of respite for passers-
by. UNLV’s current master plan reflects the library’s importance by organizing all future
building zones and campus growth around this core facility.
Information Commons
Pivotal to L A D’ design concept is the creation of a central “Information
Commons”—a grand five-story-high atrium surmounted by a curved roof of exposed steel
trusses and metal decking. Beneath this roof of revealed construction, library patrons can
work at computers that are grouped in cherry-clad media stations arranged under curved,
perforated metal canopies that echo the roof and define the individual workplaces. On the
north and west sides of this dynamic, light-filled spatial nexus are staff stations, work areas,
Lied Library
Univers ity of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
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and reference facilities, along with a variety of
reading spaces and stacks for books and peri-
odicals. Wayfinding to these essential functions
is both efficient and spatially enriching.
The southern side of the atrium features a
two-story-high transparent glass wall that
showcases the library’s innovative book storage
and retrieval system, a robotic mechanism
capable of finding and delivering a given book
to the circulation desk in fewer than six min-
utes. The automated system—the third one
installed in the United States at the time of the
building’s construction—provides efficient
space-saving storage for less frequently used
books and is capable of accommodating .
million volumes when fully expanded. In con-
junction with traditional open-stack shelving,
this fully mechanized system ultimately
enables the library to store a total of million
volumes without the need for building expan-
sion. The two-story-high supporting frame-
work of bright blue steel, the perfectly ordered
stacked storage bins of white, and the precise,
rapid movements of the mobile yellow crane
together form a large kinetic sculpture on view
to all within the Commons.
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Ground floor plan Third floor plan
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Massing
Lied Library’s exterior massing is the result of a
design strategy that treats key programmatic
functions as distinct components in both plan
and elevation. Curved roof and wall profiles of
differing radii and size recall the geometries of
several existing campus buildings yet produce a
uniquely identifiable structure.
Exter ior Mater ia ls
Exterior materials—essentially limited to con-
crete masonry, metal, and glass—reinforce the
building’s varied massing and introduce differ-
ing scales of visual texture. Split-face concrete
masonry units echo the exteriors of several
newer buildings on campus, provide a rich tex-
tural quality when struck by the sun, and wed
the building to its site. Large lightweight zinc
panels, laid in an offset joint pattern, produce
a reflective skin that seems to float above heav-
ier concrete units used where the building
meets the ground. Glass is featured either as
large wall planes for maximum transparency or
as small punched openings in walls that are pri-
marily solid surfaces.
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Interior Profi les
The building’s interior also consists of expres-
sive profiles and varied surface textures. For
example, to avoid large expanses of painted dry-
wall, canted wood panels of contrasting color,
stainless steel railings, and limited surfaces of
split-face concrete block introduce wall compo-
sitions of visual richness and tactile variety.
An internal circulation spine connecting
the two main entrances, on the north and east
sides, forms a diagonal axis through the build-
ing. Major vertical elements consisting of
stairs, elevators, and escalators are located
along this route, as are the central circulation
desk, a -seat, -hour study café, and a uni-
versity teaching/learning center.
Environmental Response
Programmatic functions are arranged in direct
response to the environmental forces of the
desert climate that characterizes the site.
Functions that need little or no natural light—
such as workrooms, the book storage wing,
and media resources—are placed on the south
or west sides of the site, with only small win-
dows to minimize insolation and therefore
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cooling requirements. North-facing reading
areas on the upper two floors are accessed by
passing through open stacks and enjoy unim-
peded vistas of the distant horizon through
generous window walls. By arranging these
spaces along a gentle curve and segmenting
them into smaller reticulated spatial units,
these reading bays assuage the scale of the
north wall and produce a visual rhythm in
counterpoint to the lower solid walls of the
building. Perforated metal screens projecting
from the space between these bays bounce sun-
light to the interior and provide additional sur-
face articulation to this long metal-clad wall.
On the east façade, additional projecting sun-
screens offer effective sun control, their result-
ing shadow patterns constantly shifting with
the diurnal path of the sun.
Dayl ight Harvest ing
The building owes much of its highly sculptur-
al quality to the harvesting of daylight both to
reduce energy costs and to provide the interior
with varying levels of natural and reflected sun-
light, whether from the sunscreened glazing of
the east façade or from upper-level clerestories.
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Extensive computer modeling during the
design phase has allowed changing daylight
conditions to be electronically monitored and
accommodated. In addition, all interior light-
ing is designed to furnish appropriate light lev-
els for computer use.
Campus Icon
Intended to serve as a center of knowledge and
learning for the next years, the building has
been designed with integrated power and data
systems to accommodate the inevitable chang-
es the future will demand. In keeping with the
traditional role of this building type on the
American university campus, Lied Library is a
dramatic signature building for the Univer-sity
of Nevada, Las Vegas—one that combines a
technologically adaptable and flexible environ-
ment with generous and welcoming areas for
study and social activity.
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