The Joseph Mark Lauinger Library is the main library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 of Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 and the center of a seven-library system that includes 2.8 million volumes. It holds 1.7 million volumes on six floors and has accommodations for individual and group study on all levels.

Opened on April 6, 1970, the library is named after an alumnus and Georgetown Chime

The Georgetown Chimes

Founded in 1946, The Georgetown Chimes are Georgetown University's oldest a cappella singing group. They are all male.- History :The Georgetown Chimes are an accident of Yale's and GU's athletic policies from the time of World War II. Yale senior and back-up quarterback Francis E...

 who was killed in the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. The building is understood to be a modern interpretation of the architecture of Healy Hall

Healy Hall

Healy Hall is the historic flagship building at the main campus of Georgetown University. The building was listed on DC Inventory of Historic Sites in 1964, on the National Register of Historic Places on May 25, 1971, and as a National Historic Landmark on December 23, 1987.-History:The building...

. It holds the Woodstock Theological Center

Woodstock Theological Center

The Woodstock Theological Center is an independent, nonprofit Catholic theological research institute in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1974, the center takes its name from Woodstock College, a former Jesuit seminary located in Maryland. The center is an affiliate member of the Washington Theological...

 Library, the remnants of the library of Woodstock College

Woodstock College

Woodstock College was a Jesuit seminary that existed from 1869 to 1974. It was the oldest Jesuit seminary in the United States. The school was located in Woodstock, Maryland, west of Baltimore, from its establishment until 1969, when it moved to New York City, where it operated in cooperation with...

 and one of the country's leading Catholic theological libraries.

The library affords breathtaking views of the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

 and the skyline of neighboring Rosslyn, Virginia

Rosslyn, Virginia

Rosslyn is an unincorporated area in Northern Virginia located in the northeastern corner of Arlington County, Virginia, north of Arlington National Cemetery and directly across the Potomac River from Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Rosslyn encompasses the Arlington neighborhoods of North Rosslyn...

, but Georgetown students have long derided the building as an ugly piece of architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

. Designed by architect John Carl Warnecke

John Carl Warnecke

John Carl Warnecke was an architect based in San Francisco, California, who designed numerous notable monuments and structures in the Modernist, Bauhaus, and other similar styles. He was an early proponent of contextual architecture. Among his more notable buildings and projects are the Hawaii...

, the building is supposed to be a brutalist

Brutalist architecture

Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.-The term "brutalism":...

 interpretation of Flemish Romanesque Healy Hall

Healy Hall

Healy Hall is the historic flagship building at the main campus of Georgetown University. The building was listed on DC Inventory of Historic Sites in 1964, on the National Register of Historic Places on May 25, 1971, and as a National Historic Landmark on December 23, 1987.-History:The building...

, located adjacent to Lauinger on Georgetown's main quad.

The Students of Georgetown, Inc.

Students of Georgetown, Inc.

Students of Georgetown, Inc., or "The Corp", as it is commonly known , is a 5013 non-profit public charitable organization at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and is the largest entirely student-run c3 non-profit corporation in the world, with seven subsidiary companies generating annual...

http://www.thecorp.org, also known as "The Corp," operates a coffee shop on the second floor of the building.