This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Lafayette has begun a $22 million renovation and modernization of Skillman Library that will further strengthen the College’s academic program.
The project includes a 27,000-square-foot expansion of the library and major changes to the existing structure. (Click here for photos of the project’s progress.) It will reaffirm Skillman’s role as the symbolic core of the campus, says Lafayette President Arthur J. Rothkopf.
“Skillman Library is the very heart of academic life at Lafayette,” Rothkopf says. “Our plan is to transform it into a learning and information center that will fulfill our promise to offer high-achieving undergraduates in the 21st century the very best possible environment for academic success. It will be the leading symbol on our campus of Lafayette’s commitment to academic excellence.
“This is the last remaining facilities project from the $213 million Lafayette Leadership Campaign to be started, and I am delighted that the work is under way,” Rothkopf continues.
Begun in March, the project is scheduled for completion in early fall 2004.
The “new” Skillman will have significantly more space for collaborative learning, for information technology, and for the print collection. The increased space for interaction and collaboration among students and between students, faculty, and librarians is especially important, says Neil J. McElroy, director of libraries and academic information resources.
“We’re providing the means for new kinds of learning and working together,” McElroy says. “The students we have today are so talented. We want to give them every opportunity to learn in a social and networked environment.”
The design, by Ann Beha Architects, Boston, includes a magnificent new reading room. A glass façade facing the quad will offer those using the library a view of campus and will give those outside a view of the vitality inside. The rear of the library will be redesigned to create new visual connections with Hugel Science Center, Acopian Engineering Center, and Kunkel Hall of biology.
The design team also includes Werner A. Buckl and Associates, Easton, whose most recent work for the Lafayette was a collaboration on the design for the Williams Visual Arts Building in downtown Easton
Skillman Library was built in 1963. The William E. and Carol G. Simon Wing, a gift of the late William E. Simon, Class of 1952, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, was added in 1986-87.