Designing for Rare Books and Manuscripts             11

remote area, 25 feet wide by 250 feet long, cm the upper floors
of Butler Library. The budget was a figure determined by real¬
istic projections of fund-raising.

Opened in 1934, Butler Library is essentially a rectangular core
 

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B_OOM«
 

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Elevation  of Butler Library  showing  the  Rare
Book and Alanuscript Librarv in the upper left.

of book storage facilities ringed by reading rooms, offices, class¬
rooms, and circulation paths. It was the last building of its type
to be built in the United States before AA'orld AA'ar II. The site
chosen for the Rare Book and Manuscript Library is one side of
the ring on the sixth and seventh floors. This long and narrow site
can be entered by the public only from the east corridor. While
a separate entity, the Librarv is inseparable from the rest of
Butler, sharing elevators, book stacks, services and systems. It is
important to note that during its construction the disruption of
the other functions had to be kept to a minimum.

Early studies of the structure of Butler Library uncovered a
major problem. The site was found to be even less flexible than
anticipated due to the 1930s method of construction, and it soon
became apparent that the program could not be achieved within