STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDUKD INSTITUTIONS. 477 



mont, but on the contrary' to use this for the pleasure and refinement 

 of the people, therefore mar})le and mosaic work were chosen, in the 

 hope that it might wear as well as that which Justinian in the fifth 

 century employed in the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople. As 

 prime necessities it was stipulated that there must be security from 

 fire and plenty of light. The books must also be placed centrally in 

 order to be easily accessible, and it was further prescribed, among 

 other things, that there should be convenient public access to the 

 rooms, spacious book delivery and reading rooms, and such furni.shing 

 and arrangement of all the rooms that they could easih' be kept clean. 



C. A. (^oolidge, of the firm of architects Shepley, Rutan & Cool- 

 idge, of Boston and Chicago, who also built the Art Institute, solved 

 this great prol)lem in a most satisfactory manner. In modern Europe 

 I would not know where to find anything similar in this line; the new 

 German library buildings certainly can not compare with it. The 

 original estimates were not exceeded, the total cost of the building 

 being, in round numbers, $2,125,000, including architects and builders' 

 fees of about $112,000. It is a Renaissance structure, with Greek and 

 Roman motives, the exterior of limestone with a base of granite, the 

 stairway, on the southern side, like the entrance to an imperial Roman 

 palace, or, b}^ electric light, it appears as a fair}^ castle of the Arabian 

 nights, built of white Carrara marble with mosaics of colored glass, 

 mother-of-pearl, and shell. The halls, saloons, and rooms are lined 

 with marble. Ten different kinds of American and European marble 

 were used. The walls and ceilings in some cases are overdecorated 

 and florid; simplicity would here have been preferable in my opinion. 

 The plain structure cost about $()00,000, the interior decoration about 

 $500,000, independentl}^ of the decoration of the memorial Grand 

 Army hall, which cost $75,000. I am quite unable, within the limits 

 of this report, to give a description of the lavish magnificence here 

 displa^'ed, and must also restrict m3^self as to ni}" illustrations, which 

 would otherwise give the reader a better idea of it. 1 must content 

 myself with saying that as a whole, whatever might be said of single 

 portions, the structure is an imposing artistic creation, to which justice 

 can not be done in a few words." 



The floor plans, figs. 55 to 57, show the arrangement of the 

 rooms. The principal entrance, from Washington street, lies toward 

 the south; the principal front, Michigan avenue, toward the east. 

 The book stacks extend partly through three stories, there being six 



« Descriptions of it are found, among other places, in Tlie Inland Architect, sup- 

 plement, January, 1898; the Quarterly Book Rerleit!, December, 1897; Puhlic Libraries, 

 November, 1897; The Outlook, October 2, 1897. It should be mentioned that nine- 

 tenths of all the work was done in Chicago itself, certainly a testimony to the splendid 

 ability of the industrial arts there. I have used especially the publication first cited, 

 which is richly illustrated. 



