Doheny Memorial Library
- Architects
- Ralph Adams Cram Samuel Eugene Lunden
- Year
- 1932
- Style
- Renaissance Revival
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
The Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library anchors the center of the USC campus, funded by a $1.1 million gift the oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny made to the university in 1932 after his son was shot and killed. The exterior was designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram, while the interiors and final working drawings were handled by Pasadena architect Samuel Lunden. The building was individually designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #1052 in December 2013.
the building
Facade and entrance. Rounded arches, pale brick, and limestone give the building a Romanesque cast drawn from Northern Italy, and the main entrance is adorned with statues of Shakespeare and Dante, plus a marble etching above the front doors depicting a teacher instructing two students, an entrance built to announce a temple of learning.
Room to grow. The library was built to hold between 450,000 and 500,000 volumes. A wing added in the 1960s doubled that capacity, meeting a goal set by then-head librarian Charlotte Brown as USC's collection outgrew Cram and Lunden's original design.
The gardens. The grounds around the library were laid out by landscape designer A.E. Hanson (1893-1986), extending the building's formal, symbolic program into the surrounding campus green space.
the style
Cram and Lunden worked in a Renaissance Revival vein, but the specific details, rounded arches, pale brick and limestone, were chosen to evoke Romanesque architecture of Northern Italy, dressing a modern university library in the forms of an Old World seat of learning.
More on Renaissance Revivalthe architect
Ralph Adams Cram designed the library's exterior; Pasadena-based architect Samuel Eugene Lunden was responsible for the interiors and the final working drawings that got the building built.
significance
The library was individually named Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #1052 in December 2013 and remains the architectural and symbolic center of the USC campus.
nearby
- Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow Center for International & Public Affairs
- Bovard Administration Building
- Hoffman Hall
- Gwynn Wilson Student Union
- USC Physical Education building
- Ahn Family House