Sciences Library (Brown University)

Sciences Library
General information
Location	201 Thayer Street, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Coordinates	41.8269°N 71.4000°W
Status	Complete
Constructed	1971
Use	Library
Height
Roof	180 feet (55 m)
Technical details
Floor count	15
Elevators	3
Companies involved
Architect(s)	Warner, Burns, Toan and Lunde
Contractor	Dimeo Construction Company
Developer	Brown University
References:

The Sciences Library, nicknamed the "SciLi", at Brown University is a high-rise building in Providence, Rhode Island built in 1971. At 180 feet (55 m), it is tied with One Citizens Plaza as the 13th-tallest building in the city. The building houses Brown University's primary on-campus collections for the physical sciences.

Completed in the Brutalist architectural style, the building is Brown University's primary science library. Faced with the desire for rigorous expansion but little real estate available, the school's solution was the creation of the first high-rise library in the world.

Clashing with late nineteenth century and early twentieth century colonial revival houses and abutting street-level shopping on Thayer Street, the Science Library is often seen as an imposing and obtrusive addition to College Hill. Architectural historian McKenzie Woodward condemns the building as "overwhelm[ing] everything around it", even comparing it to a Soviet-era Panelák when viewed from its "all-too-many distant viewing perspectives".

Friedman Study Center

In 2006, the first and second floors and the basement of the Sciences Library underwent extensive renovations and were transformed into the Susan P. and Richard A. Friedman Study Center. The center includes comfortable seating, a cafe on the first floor, public computer clusters, and collaborative study rooms.

Woodward, William McKenzie (2003). Guide to Providence Architecture (1st edition ed.). Providence, RI: Providence Preservation Society. pp. 170. ISBN 097428470X. "Brown has the dubious distinction of creating the first high-rise library anywhere. A form contrary to use, it is disliked by librarians who have to contend with moving books in circulation much farther than those in horizontally organized buildings. The escalating price of real estate in a highly desirable neighborhood surely played a role in the university's decision to go vertical, but Warner, Burns, Toan & Lund's fourteen-story shaft overwhelms everything around it, especially as rendered in the then-hip Brutalist architectural vocabulary. Buildings like this have given reinforced concrete an undeservedly bad reputation, especially locally. But this certainly addressed Brown's ambition in committing its resources to scientific and medical expansion in the last quarter of the twentieth century. In some ways this building initiated the dilemma in which Brown continues to find itself enmeshed in the early twenty-first century: an ambitious program demanding extensive expansion in an already dense area. Unlike several of the earlier libraries (especially those built before the twentieth century discussed above), this building was predicated upon continued expansion (and also on continued replacement of rapidly outdated texts), and it incorporated shelf space far more extensive than needed upon completion. The open space to the south and east somewhat mitigates the building's heavy looming presence, especially with its landscaping now maturing. But make sure you catch it from its all-too-many distant viewing perspectives, where it evokes the image of Soviet-era paneláks that despoil even more dramatically the skylines of Eastern European cities. This building, and this guide's next entry, appropriately adjacent, represent the absolute nadir of Brown's architectural patronage."