Lauinger Library
- Architect
- John Carl Warnecke
- Year
- 1970
- Style
- Brutalism
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- concrete washington
Lauinger Library opened April 6, 1970, as the new main library of Georgetown University, designed by John Carl Warnecke in exposed concrete Brutalist form. It replaced Riggs Library, the university's main library since 1891 and one of the nation's few surviving cast-iron libraries, which by mid-century could no longer hold Georgetown's growing collection. Students call it "Lau."
the building
Named for a fallen alumnus. The building is named for Joseph Mark Lauinger, a Georgetown alumnus and member of the Georgetown Chimes singing group who was killed in the Vietnam War.
Six floors, seven libraries. Lauinger anchors Georgetown's seven-library system of 3.5 million volumes, holding 1.7 million volumes itself across six floors of individual and group study space. Its fifth floor houses the Booth Center for Special Collections, along with the surviving Woodstock Theological Center Library, one of the country's leading Catholic theological collections.
the style
Warnecke's tower is a prominent example of Brutalist architecture on the Georgetown campus, its poured-concrete mass visible from the street as a deliberate contrast to the historic stone buildings around it.
More on Brutalismthe architect
John Carl Warnecke was a mid-century American architect known for large institutional commissions; at Georgetown he replaced the university's 19th-century cast-iron library with this concrete Brutalist tower.
nearby
- Georgetown University, Healy Hall
- Georgetown University, Old North
- Washington Canoe Club
- Georgetown Car Barn
- Prospect House (Lingan-Templeman House)
- Forrest-Marbury House