Highlights Archives
Reading Room Rehabilitation
Help is on the way for the venerable Library Reading Room at the Society's headquarters in Madison. Opened with much fanfare in 1900, the majestic room was "modernized" in 1955 and touched up again in 1967. For the past four decades it has slowly grown ever more down at the heels, and by 2005 Society staff decided that its fading grandeur simply had to be addressed. Worn carpet, obsolete lighting fixtures, and substandard electrical and telecommunications capacity prompted the Society and state officials in 2006 to propose a wholesale rehabilitation of one of the state's most significant architectural gems.
 Reviewing the results of the laser scan Last year the State Building Commission included $2.1 million in the state's 2007-2009 capital budget to rehabilitate the space, including $230,000 pledged by the University of Wisconsin to help furnish the room when construction is finished. Design work will be carried out by Isthmus Architecture, Inc., of Madison, which worked on the state Capitol restoration during the 1990s as well as the preservation of many other historic structures.
The goal of the Library Reading Room project is not to meticulously re-create the room as it was a century ago, but rather to make it as pleasing and effective for today's visitors as it was for Victorian ones. The intent is to enable modern library researchers to use 21st-century tools and methods while maintaining the aesthetic delights and evocative power of the original surroundings.
On January 28, 2008, Isthmus Architecture conducted a laser scan of the space. The scan took more than four hours and produced a very detailed three-dimensional rendering of the Reading Room as it exists today. Completed in a fraction of the time required by more conventional methods, the scan provides extraordinarily accurate measurements for design purposes. Rehabilitation planning will be completed by late summer, and construction should be underway by late fall. The rehabilitated room is expected to be open to the public in early summer 2009.
Visitors should expect to encounter modest inconveniences between December 2008 and May 2009, but all services will continue and the library will remain open during construction. The stacks will be accessible, books may be borrowed, and staff will continue to answer questions and help researchers connect with their past.
Questions about the project can be addressed to rick.pifer@wisconsinhistory.org. Pictures of the Reading Room over the last 110 years can be seen at our online image database Wisconsin Historical Images.
:: Posted March 10, 2008
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