Masonry Magazine September 1968 Page. 14
Research and study in an inspiring environment.
BRINGING NATURE INDOORS ...
Project: Aubrey R. Watzek Library, Lewis & Clark College,
Portland, Oregon
Architect: Paul Thiry FAIA
Structural Engineer: Worthington, Skilling & Jackson
General Contractor: Smith-Farrens Co.
Mason Contractor: Montie Smallen, Inc.
Photographer: Hugh N. Stratford
The handsome Aubrey R. Watzek Library at Lewis and Clark College, dedicated in the fall of 1967, has won three national awards for excellence in architecture and another from the Portland Beautification Association of the Portland Chamber of Commerce. National recognition of the structure came from the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects and the Educational Facilities Laboratories; from the National Academy of Design, and from the College and University Business magazine, which named the library Building of the Month for February, 1968.
Built on the sloping terrain of a campus hillside, the Aubrey R. Watzek Library blends functionally and esthetically with the surrounding natural elements. The $1.6 million three-level building is elevated on concrete columns which retain the effect of the trees they replace, leaving undisturbed the natural contours of the ground beneath.
Such placement provides controlled entrances from landscaped areas at the various levels, with the main entrance from grade level at the west facade. Other entrances are from a mall at midpoint and from north and east at the lower ground level.
The library is based on the concept of "bringing nature indoors." To accomplish the free-flowing integration of the structure with its site, the architect utilized floor-to-ceiling window walls which seem scarcely to partition the interior from the forested areas outside.
Although inspired by the past, the building is architecturally contemporary in design and utility. The contemporary design was carried out with materials to complement nearby traditional buildings as well as a 45-year-old Tudor style manor house. The library is essentially of monolithic concrete, ceramics, brick and glass; all of which retain their identity whether viewed from the exterior or from the interior.
Linking the contemporary design with the past, intaglios reflecting primitive Northwest Indian art forms adorn the exterior walls and gable corners in eight areas. At the left of the main entrance ramp, atop a seven-foot pylon, a three-foot owl with spread wings shields an
14
masonry September, 1968