REDWOOD LIBRARY

REDWOOD HARRISON
The Redwood Library and Athenaeum are in Newport. It is the oldest community library still occupying its original building in the United States founded in 1747.  His way of the design was widely copied since then, it was the beginning of the New World.  Harrison had a lot of inspirations from those before him. He had the most stylistic and most advanced private library designs of his era. Harrison used Roman Doric temple with portico and wings, which was probably an inspiration from 1735 edition of Andrea Palladio’s architecture. 


The building is crafted of wood, with a rustic appeal to look like stone. This was done to make use of local materials while mimicking the look of stone because that’s what’s was big at that time. Stone shows order and power which is meant to leave a statement. The two small projecting wings of the facade provided for office space and allowed for four large windows on the front as well as three small windows in the attic. It was the view of Redwood noticed by many when they arrived at the site. The main room in the library is the Harrison room designed by Peter Harrison himself. In there were offices, Librarian desk and it was the only place with natural light because any other form of light would destroy the books. Later, Jefferson began championing classical architecture as the model for public buildings in the new Republic. So, it is that Redwood Library is possibly one of the most architecturally influential buildings in America.
https://redwoodlibrary.org/our-building

http://a4arch.com/blog/redwood-library/

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