“Plastic. Plastic everywhere. Screens. Screens everywhere. Artificial white light everywhere. The ghost of Ben Franklin has now been incarnated in bronze. Elephants. Lots of little elephants. The layout is more open, and the bathrooms up top are nice. There’s a new café, eh? Great. I probably won’t go there at all.”
These are just a few common impressions upon observing the recent interior renovation of the Henry Buhl Library of Grove City College. A renovation was likely needed considering the old interior and how impermanent its 50s-60s design was. But what resulted from the year-long project seems both ridiculous and inevitable.
What follows here is not a critical analysis of architectural design or a rant against the school. This is intended to be a comment on what the renovation means for the library and our educational institution. It does mean something; it reveals a public word about the meaning and purpose of the library to the College. The library is now, more than ever, a computer-dominated space, a place for learning methods beyond books and quiet study.
To get some bearings on the renovation, I found out which architecture firm took the project “from concept to construction documents:” the Pittsburgh-based firm Perfido, Weiskopf, Wagstaff, and Goettel (PWWG), founded in 1975 and currently headed by the Principal Kevin Wagstaff. PWWG does work on many types of projects, but renovation of historic buildings seems to be common.
Renovations by this firm tend towards sweeping stylistic changes and injections of modernized designs into historical spaces. Henry Buhl Library is arguably an extreme example of this tendency, though this may be due to the fact that its interior was already rather modern. The Cincinnati Music Hall, in contrast, was renovated by a team headed by PWWG architects (completed in 2017), and the result also shows this injection of the new, but it was significantly curtailed by a beauty that remained integral to the structure and design of the hall. Our library, at least on the inside, did not have as strong of a historic bulwark as the Cincinnati Music Hall – a fact which likely contributed to the modernized overhaul that resulted.
In PWWG’s publicly available project brief on the Henry Buhl Library, they give an overview of the job, which is at once illuminating, confusing, and humorous. This overview includes statements made about what they accomplished, which is summed up in the leading title, “Design Strategies Re-make the Library as a Vital Part of the Campus.” Perhaps they and/or the college believed that it wasn’t a vital part before the renovation, but this certainly means, at the very least, that the library is now more vital after the work. A few of the statements are especially revealing:
“Combines mid-20th century charm with 21st century active learning”
Blending is common in renovations these days, and PWWG follows suit. In this case, PWWG’s “combination” smacks of irony, however, because there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of “charm” that comes from the mid-20th century styles, and even what can be construed as such seems to be missing from the library interior. Almost every surface has changed in this extensive renovation. The new “21st century active learning” seems to consist of many screens and new ways to integrate computer systems into studies. Could it be said that books are secondary now?
“PWWG’s interior design and FF&E are a creative riff on the college’s branding.”
“FF&E” means the removable furniture, fixtures, and equipment in the interior design. Apparently, the College’s branding has inspired the searing white fluorescents, the inescapable screens, the abundant plastic, etc. Warm colors, bricks, wooden tables, traditional American styles, and books just don’t cut it anymore. If you study the lobby enough, you may trick yourself into a greater understanding of independence, stewardship, community, excellence, and faithfulness, but you’d have to squint pretty hard.
“New layouts minimize structural modifications and stewardship of resources.”
How they fit the renovation into the space could be the most positive part of the project, ignoring the resulting oddities and ugliness. The layout of the main library section is more open than before renovation. “Stewardship” does not quite come to mind, however, when looking at the materials used in construction, which will probably have a short lifespan. Time will tell how much continuous maintenance will be needed in the building’s life ahead and how much worth these new styles will have to those who inherit the library years from now.
What is the purpose of the Henry Buhl Library?
Overall, the renovation communicates an updated, remade vision for a library: a space dedicated more fully to computer-based work and “21st century learning.” Should we students have expected anything different?
This is the direction higher education has already headed, and Grove City College cannot remain unchanged or out of the swing of things. The culture, values, and practices of Grove have changed and are changing over time, and this renovation is revelatory of that fact. The library is now a symbol and house of a piece of our future: a new, technological understanding of education itself.
Really enjoyed this article!!