By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
The variegated, rollicking exterior, at turns stainless steel, brick, glass and stucco, appears to finally be coalescing into Princeton University’s new Lewis Library, according to the design vision of acclaimed architect Frank Gehry.
”We got everything out of the design that we were after,” said Craig Webb, project designer for the Lewis Library with Gehry Partners LLP in Los Angeles. “We are very happy with the design,” said Mr. Webb, a 1974 Princeton graduate.
Interior work will be completed around the end of May, with furnishings then beginning to be moved in, Mr. Webb said. The university has scheduled the official opening of the new 87,000-square-foot science library — funded by a $60 million gift by Progressive Insurance Co. Chairman Peter Lewis, a 1955 Princeton graduate — for the fall.
Princeton has always looked for innovative architects to design buildings on its campus, and “certainly Frank Gehry fits that description,” said University Architect Emeritus Jon Hlafter.
The Lewis Library “is very different from many of the other buildings on the campus but at the same time it represents the architecture in America at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century,” and fulfills an important role at the university, Mr. Hlafter said.
Mr. Hlafter said he has already been getting plenty of feedback, with people telling him “how interesting and different the campus will look, in a very positive way.”
”For me it’s a bit of a homecoming,” said Mr. Webb. “The architecture is very of-the-moment, contemporary and something that has been a long time coming at Princeton,” Mr. Webb said.
Construction of the library was begun in 2004 and originally scheduled for completion in the fall of 2006. In 2006, the firm overseeing construction, Skanska USA Building Inc., based in Parsippany, was removed from the project and replaced by New York City-based Bar & Bar, according to university spokeswoman Emily Aronson.
”Obviously unusual shapes and forms that builders have not encountered before are always a challenge, so it takes good builders,” to deal with a design like Mr. Gehry’s, said Mr. Hlafter.
Mr. Hlafter said Anne St. Mauro, director of the office of design and construction at the university, would be able to describe more specifically why Skanska was replaced, “but clearly the answer is the university was not satisfied with the performance of Skanska up to that point.”
Ms. St. Mauro did not return calls seeking comment. A representative of Skanska said the firm would have no comment on the matter.
The unusual change of builder so late in construction “did not in any way degrade the design of the building, it just delayed the opening,” said Mr. Webb.
