The Forgotten Star Architect Behind Dr. Seuss’ Fantastical Library
Just up the hill from the most iconic piece of modern architecture in California—the Salk Institute, a travertine courtyard dropping straight into the infinite Pacific flanked by volcanic ash concrete towers—is another modern masterpiece from a starchitect who has become criminally overlooked. That’s why our latest selection for our monthly series on the World’s Most Beautiful Libraries is that triumph—William L. Pereira’s Geisel Library.
The library is a bit jarring in real life. It’s more like the Space Age tower headquarters of the police, only with hundreds of sunkissed students pouring in, out, and around it. The library is perched on the edge of a canyon and named in honor of Theodor Seuss Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, whose widow donated his collection and a few million to it), and it was completed in 1970 as the centerpiece of the campus of the recently established University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
A fusion of futurist and brutalist styles (accidentally, as the original design called for steel and glass but skyrocketing steel costs precipitated a shift to concrete) it looked and still looks like nothing else out there. Many instinctively recoil at mere mention of brutalism, let alone the pearl-clutching induced by contending some brutalist works are beautiful and worth preserving. See, for instance the ignorant and uninspired narrow-mindedness of this Reuters list of 10 ugly buildings to visit, which includes the library. But, make no mistake, the Geisel Library is beautiful. There’s a reason the university still uses it as its logo. And even more importantly, it’s a window into a history-altering period of architecture.