Yale’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (BRBL) at Yale University was a 1963 gift of the Beinecke family. The building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Gordon Bunshaft of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. It is the largest building in the world reserved exclusively for the preservation of rare books and manuscripts. To date there are about 500,000 volumes and several million manuscripts at the library.
Located at 121 Wall Street, it is in the center of the Yale campus in New Haven, Connecticut; in the Hewitt Quadrangle, which is more commonly referred to as “Beinecke Plaza”. [Source]
BRBL is a six-story above-ground glass-enclosed tower of book stacks surrounded by a windowless rectangular outer shell. It is supported on four massive piers at the corners of the building, which descend 50 feet to bedrock. The outer walls are made of translucent veined marble panels which transmit subdued lighting and provide protection from direct sunlight. At night, the stone panels transmit light from the interior, giving the exterior of the building an amber glow. [Source]
Click here to see a list of special collections held at the library.
