The master plan designed for the California Institute of Technology in 1952 by William Pereira and Charles Luckman was a careful blend of modernism and deference to the existing campus buildings. The latter followed an earlier plan, established in the 1920s by Bertram Goodhue in his signature combination of Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco elements. The focal point of Pereira & Luckman’s plan was a central library, a facility that Caltech was still missing, relying instead on a network of department libraries. Situated on the focal point of the Goodhue plan, their design was building on a succession of earlier projects going back to an original proposal by Goodhue himself. In turn, the new proposal went through a series of drafts in which modernist elements took gradually more prominence, while always keeping an arched pergola on the lower level to match the surrounding courtyards.
In 1959 came the news that funding for the new library were to be provided by cancer researcher and philanthropist Dr. Seeley G. Mudd. This generosity came with ties attached, among which was total control over the building’s architecture, furnishings included. Mudd deemed the existing design not worthy of his late colleague Robert A. Millikan, which he intended to honour with the new library. He therefore retained the services of Flewelling & Moody, an established Los Angeles firm with experience in educational facilities. Their proposal was a stark departure from the earliest drawings, a tall tower of South African black granite and grey glass window contrasting against white pre-cast concrete panels. While the college community rebelled against the tall structure, it was eventually won over by the surrounding greenery the tower’s smaller footprint allowed. Its water feature in particular seems to have quickly become a student (and teacher) favourite.
While the new design did away with the arched portico, the tower’s pediment still pays homage to that distinctive feature of its surroundings, with a recessed area on the north and south sides closed by coffer arches. To the east, hovering over a rectangular reflecting pool is an elegant octagonal pavilion with large windows opening to the campus. The pool is situated at the intersection of the two axes from the Pereira and Luckman design, which to this day anchor the campus’ spatial organization.
In 2021, the library was renamed Caltech Hall in an effort by the institution to distance itself from Robert Millikan, who was a noted proponent of eugenics.
The images shown here date from my brief visit in February 2019.
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