The Edgar Shannon Library has been open a little more than a year, and in that time, it’s welcomed several hundred thousand visitors and hosted hundreds of events, workshops, and presentations. For a broad look at Shannon Library, check out our Overview and What’s in Shannon Library? videos.
For a closer look, enjoy the photos below. Photographers Tom Daly and Sanjay Suchak found some unusual angles, interesting patterns, and unexpected views of the library, capturing unique details of Shannon Library over its first year of operation.
Let there be lights
Natural light is abundant in Shannon Library, but there’s also plenty of electric light to help with illumination. From chandeliers to pendants, take a look at just a few of the many new and renewed light fixtures in the building.
Below: View looking up at lights on the clerestory on the roof; a second view of the spherical lights hanging from the clerestory; elegant fixtures above the fourth floor north reading room; a restored chandelier in Memorial Hall.
Art/Deco
Shannon Library is full of art and decoration, including architectural details from the original building as well as prints, paintings, photography, sculpture, displays, and more installed through the Art in Library Spaces initiative.
Below: Decorative wrought-iron lettering in the doorway of the Taylor Room; detail of “Dark Flag” painting by art professor Sanda Iliescu and volunteers; a cast iron panel in the fifth-floor railing — one of many once in the Rotunda; a colorful vase from the University’s Decorative Arts collection, now in the room also housing the Stanley and Lucie Weinstein Asian and Buddhist Studies Library.
Things are looking up
What sorts of things? The light fixtures of course, but also skylights, stairwells, and unique design elements. When you take a moment to look around you, don’t forget to also look above you!
Below: View of Memorial Hall from the covered entryway; looking up the central stairs to the “snowflake skylight”; details of the restored Memorial Hall ceiling; one of the two skylights covering the second floor Study Courts.
Fully booked
With 1.2 million volumes in the on-Grounds social sciences and humanities collection, Shannon Library is full of books — new, old, and somewhere in between.
Below: Volumes awaiting treatment from the Preservation Services department; new additions to Library holdings, now available to be checked out; books from the teaching collections of Rare Book School on shelving in the McGregor Room; works from poet Wendell Berry and others in the fifth-floor stacks.
Patterns and people
Interesting details are everywhere you look, from the patterns on the floors and walls to the patterns being pushed out by 3D printers. And finally, it wouldn’t be a UVA Library without the students.
Below: Wooden flooring and rug in the McGregor Room; 3D printing in the Scholars’ Lab Makerspace; a brick wall and bricked-over window in the Study Courts; overhead view of students in study tables on the fourth floor.
