Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White was chosen in 1887 to design the Boston Public Library's Copley Square building, proposing a design in 1888 modeled on the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris. The trustees approved it, and the legislature had authorized a grander building around 1880. A photo caption dates construction to 1889, and the text says it was completed in 1895.
The article calls the style Renaissance and names Bates Hall, a vast reading room, a courtyard and a Dartmouth Street facade. It names pink Milford granite only for the adjacent Boylston Street Building. The combined Central Library is 930,000 square feet (86,000 m²).
Philip Johnson's Boylston Street Building of 1972 connects through interior passageways and was renovated in 2015 to 2016. The McKim Building houses the research stacks. The National Park Service designated it a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
Comments