By Katie Wagner / Staff Writer
PRINCETON — Construction of the modern-styled Lewis Library, which began in 2004, is complete and staff have begun working in their offices inside Princeton University’s newest research and science library.
Media tours of the building located on the corner of Ivy Lane and Washington Road, which were offered this week, revealed neon and bold-colored paint on its interior walls, matching the exterior colors of two of the building’s “pop-up” stucco towers.
The main tower of the facility, which primarily serves as study and research space, still awaits more books and furniture that are anticipated to arrive in time for Princeton University students’ first day of classes — Sept. 11.
On that day, classes in a variety of academic disciplines are scheduled to be held in the library’s combination of classrooms and seminar rooms.
The library is housing the university’s astrophysics, biology, chemistry, geosciences, mathematics, physics and statistics collections, the map collection and the digital map and geospatial information center. It primarily occupies a four-level above-grade main tower with an “A level” below grade, as well as a two-story wing along Washington Road.
The rest of the facility, mainly in a three-story wing along Ivy Lane, will be home to two of Princeton’s principal instructional technology support groups in the Office of Information Technology: the Education Technologies Center and the New Media Center, Broadcast Center. In addition, it will house the computational science and engineering support group for Computational Science and Engineering and the Office of Information Technology.
The 87,000-square-foot facility was designed by Gehry Partners LLP, whose principal architect, Frank Gehry is known worldwide for his postmodernist work. The diversity in the multi-planar exterior walls of the building, which are composed of layers of stainless steel, brick, glass and stucco, is present in the interior walls of the building that come in a variety of geometric shapes with aluminum panels invading some rooms.
The part of the building, which Mr. Gehry named “the treehouse,” that is located on the second floor of the main tower even contains three layers of ceiling.
The rectangular glass windowpanes covering much of the exterior walls of the building are also present inside some of the building’s interior walls.
Reflections in the windowpanes on the interior walls combined with the unusual shape of the building can make it difficult to tell whether or not one is looking at an exterior or interior wall of the building from the inside.
Douglas fir tables designed by Gehry are examples of some of the pieces of furniture that have already arrived. These rectangular tables with rough-looking, but smooth-feeling edges, fill much of the tower’s second, third and fourth floors.
Stacks on the A level of the new library have already been filled with scientific books. This below-grade portion of the building connects with the current library in Fine Hall, which will be incorporated into the complex and known as the Lewis Science Library Fine Hall Wing.
The building is named for Peter Lewis, a 1955 alumnus, university trustee and chairman of the board of the Progressive Corp. Mr. Lewis donated $60 million towards the building’s construction and programs.
The university does not have a final cost for the project, but the most recently approved budget for building the library was $74 million, university spokeswoman Cass Cliatt said Wednesday.
Completion of the building had originally been scheduled for the fall of 2006.
The firm overseeing construction, Skanska USA Building Inc., based in Parsippany, was removed from the project in 2006 and replaced by New York City-based Barr & Barr.
The university is contemplating taking legal action against subcontractors that have pleaded guilty to charges regarding their work on the library, Ms. Cliatt said last week. In May, a federal prosecutor in Trenton informed the university that a principal owner of Macedo Construction, a subcontractor, had entered guilty pleas in connection with the library’s construction. Since that time, the university has learned that representatives of three additional subcontractors pleaded guilty to charges involving the university construction project.

