Hillman Library 1st floor Renovations....getting slammed
- Thread starter CrazyPaco
- Start date
I'm fine with it but that's just me. Nothing fantastic but not horrible.
Wait a minute. You were supposed to study at the Library?
Almost everything I am seeing are saying aseptic, cold, sterile, too bright, like a hospital cafeteria or airport.
What is surprising to me is these comments are coming from current students.
Believe it or not, use of libraries on campuses has been going up. Hence the renovations, a large part of which has been adding small group and other study/work spaces.
These rennovations removed a lot of the books though which have gone into storage (which is also, surprisingly, a complaint I've seen among students...that it doesn't feel like a library).
What I've seen of the upper floor renovations, to me, looked really good. Not sure about these 1st floor ones as it certainly looses the warmth of the wood decor, but I was somewhat surprised at the flood of negative comments. It does look sparse. Maybe they'll move some of the art back in.
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It's hard to imagine something more cold, sterile, and institutional. Hard pass. The wood softened the atmosphere somewhat previously. Now it's all in on the concrete bunker aesthetic.
On a broader level, I can't understand the thought behind putting all of the brutalist buildings in the heart of a campus and neighborhood whose signature buildings are gothic and classical. I realize that Oakland already had a mish-mash of architectural styles when the Forbes Field site was developed, but the contrast between the brutalist buildings and the Cathedral, Heinz Chapel, Soldiers and Sailors, PAA, Masonic Temple, Carnegie Library, etc. is jarring. I suppose it was cost driven, but a missed opportunity to make a signature complex of important buildings. Yuck.
On a broader level, I can't understand the thought behind putting all of the brutalist buildings in the heart of a campus and neighborhood whose signature buildings are gothic and classical. I realize that Oakland already had a mish-mash of architectural styles when the Forbes Field site was developed, but the contrast between the brutalist buildings and the Cathedral, Heinz Chapel, Soldiers and Sailors, PAA, Masonic Temple, Carnegie Library, etc. is jarring. I suppose it was cost driven, but a missed opportunity to make a signature complex of important buildings. Yuck.
To me the biggest issue would be the light temperature and with bare white walls it's only going to make it worse. I feel like it would be pretty straining trying to read there for more than an hour or two at a time. I'm sure it probably is better for attentiveness or something, but can't imagine it feels comfortable.
The building needed no renovation. They’ve taken a good representation of mid 20th century style and ruined it. I wouldn’t want to spend 15 minutes in that drab white interior.
Turns out... aesthetics matter.
The main problem here is that the floor and walls in those pics are similar lighter colors. There is no contrast and that gives the impression of a sterile hospital environment.
Pitt... still making the simple look difficult.
The main problem here is that the floor and walls in those pics are similar lighter colors. There is no contrast and that gives the impression of a sterile hospital environment.
Pitt... still making the simple look difficult.
The brutalist building decisions were actually just driven by the architectual style du jour when they were built...late 60s to early 70s.
Pretty much every major university campus has these....and it seems like almost every school built new libraries around this time too.
What's different about Pitt's is that although traditional brutalist style would just be a concrete facade, Pitt actually went through the trouble of covering the exteriors with limestone to match the Cathedral of Learning...which is actually not the cheaper way to go.
Seems fine to me. Sounds like complaining for the sake of it. I never thought Hillman was all that nice to begin with when I was a student in the 80's (grad in the 90's) but never so much so that I would complain.
I been taking my son on college visits over the last 6 months and basically these look as nice as anything we have seen thus far.
Pitt News editorial board also not a fan.
Pretty much have never seen a renovation or building project at Pitt have such a universally negative reaction across the board. At worst, there is usually indifference.
Compare it to the renovations to Posvar where they created nice new spaces like the Global Hub, which was nearly universally liked.
Pretty much have never seen a renovation or building project at Pitt have such a universally negative reaction across the board. At worst, there is usually indifference.
Compare it to the renovations to Posvar where they created nice new spaces like the Global Hub, which was nearly universally liked.
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With this being a Pitt football message board and all………. they should have just bulldozed it and built a brand new Football Stadium here instead. 🙂
Students were largely indifferent to Hillman's aesthetics, which is why the reaction to this modern renovation is so surprisingly negative.
But I would say Hillman also did have a unique feel on the first floor that is now gone. Maybe that was because it survived so long without a renovation. By the images of the new look, it now seems run of the mill generic like you see in many institutional libraries or, really, office spaces. It would be a real shame if they destroyed the special reading room spaces that were dedicated and designed to reflect specific individuals/themes. Those, at the least, should have been preserved or moved. Maybe they have been, I don't know.. And who knows what happened to the artwork.
I'll reserve judgement until I see it in person, or perhaps after they are done with the major ground floor renovations and addition to see how it fits together.
But, this was supposed to be something for students and to attract students, and if the initial reaction is all "yuck" from teens and 20 somethings, then it is hard to think they didn't get this wrong.
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I've suggested they just get rid of the library, as much if the space is wasted. Demo it along with some adjacent buildings, and put the stadium there with the Cathedral towering behind it.
I've been saying that for quite some time now. Get rid of that, David Lawrence Hall and the Katz School of Business Building and put a stadium in that area with one end zone open and facing the Cathedral of Learning. I know they would probably have to do more then just that to fit it in, but what a view!!
No they aren’t. People have been proclaiming the death of the book for two decades now and that hasn’t proven to be the case. That doesn’t include archival resources that aren’t digitized that a student might need to access.
ETA: I also take my little guy to the library for new books once a week and it’s always packed. So my neighborhood didn’t get the memo.
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The coffee bar alone would have sold it to me. They used to kick us out in the 80s just for having a pint of Turners iced tea
Maybe that was the plan. Find a way to make people hate Hillman so they can redevelop it. 🤣
I think they’d probably need to raze Forbes Quad as well to fit a stadium in there. Unless they wanted to make it a very lopsided stadium (which could be cool).
Well let me clarify
University libraries
We frequent the Carnegie library frequently for my son
Prepares them for the cold, sterile, too bright, office environment corporate America likes to torture us with.
it looks like a room you'd put someone in if you are running a sensory deprivation experiment on them.
So in other words, get rid of education buildings to build a stadium that is used a few times a year. I hope you're not serious. As an alumnus of Katz, I object!
we like to refer to this as the "open room concept". it sounds better..
It is pretty stark now, but come on, the old look was…OLD. All that yellow waxy wood trim and the beat up old furniture with the tired cushions. It was ugly in 1985, let alone now. I’d lament a bit that the new stuff looks very cheap, will wear poorly, and that college students and white furniture, floors and walls is not the best idea…An idea/design that probably seemed cool on the computer screens but was never contemplated how it would work in real life.
You just described all of those hideous brutalism-styled buildings on campus. They look like an architecture firm subcontracted out to a soviet bloc design company to save money. They are soul-crushing and heartless.
New sculpture installed outside of Hillman!
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