[Untitled]

Howard, Stephen W.

Gander, Andrew

Arlington, VA, USA

2014

005-LF-P019

Professional

Research libraries maintain scholastic and popular relevance by adopting contemporary tools and mediums for the rapid formation and visualization of ideas and their potentially entertaining dissemination. It does so without sacrificing the artifactual for the purely informational. A technologically advanced accession process includes rapid, accurate digitization, cataloguing both digitally and physically while enhancing the collection’s accessibility and searchability. The Athenæum equips researchers with data mining and visualization software, accelerating and diversifying the dissemination and formation of new knowledge with video, maps, imaging, and holographics. Robotically accessed archives concentrate centuries of books, drawings, documents, and objects, retaining those fundamental, artifactual tools.

This proposal embraces the unity of a longstanding tradition with an imagined future of academic research and archival stewardship. The forward-positioned grand reading rooms, lecture halls, and galleries provide a dignified setting for academic discovery as researchers unlock the cultural wealth safeguarded within the archives. A robotic archival storage and retrieval system conceptually anchors the building and is on display for the public’s enjoyment. Classical Greek ornamentation recalls Philadelphia’s civic identity as the “Athens of America.” Interplay of traditional and contemporary design elements embodies the spirit of history in the digital age.

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