Robarts Library
Encyclopedia
The John P. Robarts Research Library, commonly referred to as Robarts Library, is the main humanities
and social sciences library
of the University of Toronto Libraries
and the largest individual library in the university. Opened in 1973 and named for John Robarts
, the 17th Premier of Ontario
, the library contains more than 4.8 million bookform items, 4.1 million microform items and 740,000 other items.
The library building is one of the most significant examples of brutalist architecture
in North America. Its towering main structure rests on an equilateral triangular footprint and features extensive use of triangular geometric patterns throughout. It forms the main component of a three-tower complex that also includes the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
and the Claude Bissel Building, which houses the Faculty of Information. The library's imposing appearance has earned it the nickname of Fort Book.
and Brown
universities and was specialized in precast concrete
buildings. Coinciding with the Canadian Centennial
celebrations, the initial plan was expanded to add three more storeys to the original design. Construction of the library began in 1968 and completed in 1973, at a cost of over $40 million.
Robarts Library occupies a 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) site on a field of open space and mature tree cover. The building rests on an equilateral triangle footprint with each side measuring 330 feet (100.6 m), the same length as a Canadian football field from goal post to goal post. The building is oriented such that one side of the equilateral triangle faces west while the other two sides face northeast and southeast.
The elevation is mostly concrete, albeit differing in textures and directionality: smooth concrete lines the façade in a horizontal manner, the rough concrete lining vertically. The steel-framed
windows are situated onto the bays protruding from the façade, which remind one of the towers overhanging in medieval castle architecture. Ironically, the bay windows seem to elevate upwards, opening up the two lowermost levels into voids enclosed with steel-framed glazing, making these elements seem lighter than they really are. To stretch further one’s imagination, it is as if these elements are elevators that transport the "scholar[s] anxious to escape the noise and turmoil of the vulgar press [into]… a dream palace enshrining in its holy mysteries the power of the word."
Comprising sixteen storeys, including two underground floors, the brutalist
and futurist
structure features raised podia and a suspended fourth floor. A mezzanine
level physically connects Robarts Library to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
building at its southeastern side, and to the Claude Bissel Building, housing the Faculty of Information, at its northeastern side. The concrete waffle slab floor plates are adorned with triangular-patterned tessellation
. A hexagonal central circulation atrium is enclosed at the core of the building and through the middle of the mezzanine level. The gross area of the building is over 1036000 square feet (96,247.5 m²).
In 2008, the university announced that Robarts Library would be receiving a significant upgrade. The plans include 2,752 new study spaces and a new outdoor amphitheatre-like area. Some of the concrete walls will be replaced with glass to allow sunlight into the stacks on the 9th-13th floors. Designed by Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated, the renovation of 300000 square feet (27,870.9 m²) on nine floors of the existing building will include two glass-enclosed study spaces on each of the elevated north and south entrances, as well as the addition of a 58000 square feet (5,388.4 m²), five-storey building on the west façade to provide 1200 new study spaces and a new entrance from Huron Street. The renovation will cost the university $42 million. These renovations are ongoing with the glass-enclosed study spaces being built first.
Gretton outlines the library’s significance to serving a campus community the size of a town, as well as by being a central storage for man’s recorded thoughts and inspiration. The library was initially intended for use by graduate students only, but following an illegal student occupation of the building, undergraduate students were also granted access. The library's initial design was for a mechanical book conveyor belt system to allow for faster collection by library staff, who would then send books downstairs for pickup. After Robarts was opened to all students, the conveyor system was discarded, although the tracks used by the conveyor system are still visible above the shelves.
It is also the home of Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, which holds a collections of over 380,000 volumes of materials in Chinese
, Japanese
and Korean
, and of the Dictionary of Old English
Project.
In addition to a rich collection of texts, the library contains 24-hour quiet reading rooms that are open during the academic year with the exception of weekends. As well, the Information Commons, a large bank of computers connected to the Internet on the first floor, allows all University of Toronto students access to computers, printers, scanners, and audiovisual equipment. Additionally, the university's Accessibility
Services are located in this floor, while the accessibility computer lab was located beside it. On August 2010, the accessibility computer lab moved to the OCAD University, which is shared with students with disabilities from that college, as well as from nearby Ryerson University
and Seneca College
.
A book-scanning centre on the seventh floor is the university's contribution to the Internet Archive
's text digitization project.
's The Name of the Rose
. Eco spent much of the time writing the novel at the University of Toronto, and the stairwell of the secret library bears a particularly strong resemblance to that in Robarts Library.
The library was featured in the episode "The One Where Joey Speaks French" of the popular television series Friends
. Robarts Library is shown briefly during a scene transition and is implied to be the outdoor view of an unknown New York hospital where actress Jennifer Aniston's character Rachel visits her father, who has just suffered a heart attack.
The library was also shown in an episode of Sliders
titled "El Sid". It is shown briefly as a still visual after a commercial break, in an episode where the story takes place in an alternate San Francisco that has become a giant prison. It was also seen during a slide transition during the season finale of The Amazing Race 8
. The Bransen Family were running past it after finishing a Detour (a game task) at the nearby Bata Shoe Museum
in Toronto.
Robarts was used for exterior shots of the prison setting in Resident Evil: Afterlife
. The entire building is visible numerous times, having been digitally edited and transplanted from its downtown Toronto location to Los Angeles. In the film, it has been surrounded by a prison wall and hundreds of thousands of zombies. While the exterior retains its triangular shape, the interior is rectangular.
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and social sciences 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 the University of Toronto Libraries
University of Toronto Libraries
The University of Toronto Libraries is the library system of the University of Toronto, comprising about 30 individual libraries that hold more than 10 million bound volumes and 5 million microform volumes...
and the largest individual library in the university. Opened in 1973 and named for John Robarts
John Robarts
John Parmenter Robarts, PC, CC, QC was a Canadian lawyer and statesman, and the 17th Premier of Ontario.-Early life:...
, the 17th Premier of Ontario
Premier of Ontario
The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...
, the library contains more than 4.8 million bookform items, 4.1 million microform items and 740,000 other items.
The library building is one of the most significant examples of brutalist architecture
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":...
in North America. Its towering main structure rests on an equilateral triangular footprint and features extensive use of triangular geometric patterns throughout. It forms the main component of a three-tower complex that also includes the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is a library in the University of Toronto, constituting the largest repository of publicly accessible rare books and manuscripts in Canada. The library is also home to the university archives which, in addition to institutional records, also contains the papers...
and the Claude Bissel Building, which houses the Faculty of Information. The library's imposing appearance has earned it the nickname of Fort Book.
Architecture
The design of the Robarts Library complex was headed by Mathers & Haldenby Architects with consultation from Warner, Burns, Toan & Lunde, the New York architectural firm whose earlier works included the libraries at CornellCornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
and Brown
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
universities and was specialized in precast concrete
Precast concrete
By producing precast concrete in a controlled environment , the precast concrete is afforded the opportunity to properly cure and be closely monitored by plant employees. Utilizing a Precast Concrete system offers many potential advantages over site casting of concrete...
buildings. Coinciding with the Canadian Centennial
Canadian Centennial
The Canadian Centennial was a year long celebration held in 1967 when Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. Celebrations occurred throughout the year but culminated on Dominion Day, July 1. 1967 coins were different from previous years' issues, with animals on each...
celebrations, the initial plan was expanded to add three more storeys to the original design. Construction of the library began in 1968 and completed in 1973, at a cost of over $40 million.
Robarts Library occupies a 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) site on a field of open space and mature tree cover. The building rests on an equilateral triangle footprint with each side measuring 330 feet (100.6 m), the same length as a Canadian football field from goal post to goal post. The building is oriented such that one side of the equilateral triangle faces west while the other two sides face northeast and southeast.
The elevation is mostly concrete, albeit differing in textures and directionality: smooth concrete lines the façade in a horizontal manner, the rough concrete lining vertically. The steel-framed
Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...
windows are situated onto the bays protruding from the façade, which remind one of the towers overhanging in medieval castle architecture. Ironically, the bay windows seem to elevate upwards, opening up the two lowermost levels into voids enclosed with steel-framed glazing, making these elements seem lighter than they really are. To stretch further one’s imagination, it is as if these elements are elevators that transport the "scholar[s] anxious to escape the noise and turmoil of the vulgar press [into]… a dream palace enshrining in its holy mysteries the power of the word."
Comprising sixteen storeys, including two underground floors, the 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":...
and futurist
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
structure features raised podia and a suspended fourth floor. A mezzanine
Mezzanine
Mezzanine may refer to:* Mezzanine , an intermediate floor between main floors of a building* Mezzanine, in technology, can refer to a thin sheet of plastic insulating different parts of circuitry from each other in cramped environments, such as laptop interiors* Mezzanine board, or daughterboard,...
level physically connects Robarts Library to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is a library in the University of Toronto, constituting the largest repository of publicly accessible rare books and manuscripts in Canada. The library is also home to the university archives which, in addition to institutional records, also contains the papers...
building at its southeastern side, and to the Claude Bissel Building, housing the Faculty of Information, at its northeastern side. The concrete waffle slab floor plates are adorned with triangular-patterned tessellation
Tessellation
A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of parts of the plane or of other surfaces. Generalizations to higher dimensions are also possible. Tessellations frequently appeared in the art...
. A hexagonal central circulation atrium is enclosed at the core of the building and through the middle of the mezzanine level. The gross area of the building is over 1036000 square feet (96,247.5 m²).
In 2008, the university announced that Robarts Library would be receiving a significant upgrade. The plans include 2,752 new study spaces and a new outdoor amphitheatre-like area. Some of the concrete walls will be replaced with glass to allow sunlight into the stacks on the 9th-13th floors. Designed by Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated, the renovation of 300000 square feet (27,870.9 m²) on nine floors of the existing building will include two glass-enclosed study spaces on each of the elevated north and south entrances, as well as the addition of a 58000 square feet (5,388.4 m²), five-storey building on the west façade to provide 1200 new study spaces and a new entrance from Huron Street. The renovation will cost the university $42 million. These renovations are ongoing with the glass-enclosed study spaces being built first.
Features and collections
It is also the home of Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, which holds a collections of over 380,000 volumes of materials in Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
and Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, and of the Dictionary of Old English
Dictionary of Old English
The Dictionary of Old English is a dictionary published by the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto under the direction of Angus Cameron , Ashley Crandell Amos , and Antonette diPaolo Healey. It "defines the vocabulary of the first six centuries of the English language, using...
Project.
In addition to a rich collection of texts, the library contains 24-hour quiet reading rooms that are open during the academic year with the exception of weekends. As well, the Information Commons, a large bank of computers connected to the Internet on the first floor, allows all University of Toronto students access to computers, printers, scanners, and audiovisual equipment. Additionally, the university's Accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
Services are located in this floor, while the accessibility computer lab was located beside it. On August 2010, the accessibility computer lab moved to the OCAD University, which is shared with students with disabilities from that college, as well as from nearby Ryerson University
Ryerson University
Ryerson University is a public research university located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its urban campus is adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square located at the busiest intersection in Downtown Toronto. The majority of its buildings are in the blocks northeast of the square in Toronto's Garden...
and Seneca College
Seneca College
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology is a Canadian public college in the greater Toronto area. Seneca College is currently Canada's largest college with approximately 108,000 students.-History:...
.
A book-scanning centre on the seventh floor is the university's contribution to the Internet Archive
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
's text digitization project.
In popular culture
Robarts Library is thought to be the model for the secret library in Umberto EcoUmberto Eco
Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
's The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose is the first novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
. Eco spent much of the time writing the novel at the University of Toronto, and the stairwell of the secret library bears a particularly strong resemblance to that in Robarts Library.
The library was featured in the episode "The One Where Joey Speaks French" of the popular television series Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
. Robarts Library is shown briefly during a scene transition and is implied to be the outdoor view of an unknown New York hospital where actress Jennifer Aniston's character Rachel visits her father, who has just suffered a heart attack.
The library was also shown in an episode of Sliders
Sliders
Sliders is an American science fiction television series. It was broadcast for five seasons, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2000. The series follows a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to "slide" between different parallel universes. The show was created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé...
titled "El Sid". It is shown briefly as a still visual after a commercial break, in an episode where the story takes place in an alternate San Francisco that has become a giant prison. It was also seen during a slide transition during the season finale of The Amazing Race 8
The Amazing Race 8
The Amazing Race 8 is the eighth installment of the reality television show The Amazing Race...
. The Bransen Family were running past it after finishing a Detour (a game task) at the nearby Bata Shoe Museum
Bata Shoe Museum
The Bata Shoe Museum is a museum in downtown Toronto, Canada that collects, researches, preserves, and exhibits footwear from around the world. It offers four exhibitions, three of which are time-limited, as well as lectures, performances and family events....
in Toronto.
Robarts was used for exterior shots of the prison setting in Resident Evil: Afterlife
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Resident Evil: Afterlife is a 2010 Canadian-German 3D science-fiction horror action film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe, and Wentworth Miller. The film marks Anderson's second time to direct in...
. The entire building is visible numerous times, having been digitally edited and transplanted from its downtown Toronto location to Los Angeles. In the film, it has been surrounded by a prison wall and hundreds of thousands of zombies. While the exterior retains its triangular shape, the interior is rectangular.