Simply put, the library is a great work of art. It is timeless in its conception and it is epic in its execution.”Bill Whitaker, curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design
How do I love the library? Archivist counts the ways.
Few know Louis Kahn and his genius as well as Bill Whitaker. As curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, Whitaker lives Kahn’s work daily. He speaks frequently about Kahn and is the keeper of more than 36,000 of the architect’s drawings.
And still, as Whitaker addressed assembly Friday to talk about Kahn and his creation, the Class of 1945 Library, he couldn’t hide his envy of Exonians and their proximity to a masterpiece.
“I come here as a guest, as a visitor, as an architect, and I come and go,” he said. “You have four years with this building.
“It is a great privilege to live amongst a building of this quality,” Whitaker said. “To see it, to experience it, to look at the light, to look at the world through it. You will learn in this building, you may make some long-term friendships that will come out of the building, but you all have the opportunity to learn from this building and to receive its simple gifts.”
Whitaker’s visit was part of the Academy’s celebration of the library and the 50th anniversary of its opening. He is one of a legion of Kahn admirers in general and enthusiasts about Exeter’s library in particular. The building is a magnet for architects and design lovers worldwide.
Whitaker promised his listeners his short address would not consist of statistics about the library or biographical trivia about Kahn, but instead “try to get us in his head,” but he opened his remarks underlining what he loves about the building: “Simply put, the library is a great work of art. It is timeless in its conception and it is epic in its execution.”
He said the library reminds him of the Aaron Copland symphony, “Appalachian Spring,” which he called “a moving and complex thing that is based on something very simple. … Your library is based on a similarly simple theme and it, too, is a moving and complex thing that can be returned to time and again. Every time I come here, I’m taking something new from the experience.”
He likened the library to a journal, in that “it captures time. If you don’t write it down in the moment, it’s gone. … The Exeter Library captures time in the way that it shapes natural light and brings into focus the world around and our place in it. It’s particularly sensitive to the changing mood of the day and the seasons.”
Whitaker took the students through Kahn’s process of designing and redesigning the building, showing through some of the 2,000 drawings of the library his museum owns how the plans evolved from the time of Kahn’s hiring in 1966 until the day the building opened in November 1971. Windows grew and shrunk; arches came and went. He showed how the study carrels were central to the design of the structure and not simply furniture added to a finished shell. And he underscored how a great building’s creation is the result of a collaborative process, giving credit to late Exeter Librarian Rodney Armstrong and the faculty members who helped Kahn and his team.
Whitaker told his audience that celebrating the anniversary of a building, this building, is an appropriate and fitting gesture.
“As an architect, every time I come here, there’s an indelible impression that that building leaves with me,” he said. “The fact that we’re at this assembly today and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the completion of the building tells us that this is no ordinary building. And I promise you, 25 years from now, 50 years from now, there’s going to be some guy just like me or some person just like me, who’s going to be saying something very similar attesting to the greatness of this building.”
