Title:Love Lau

To celebrate the renewal of Lauinger Library, the iconic campus landmark turning 55 this year, we called upon you, the Georgetown family, to share your favorite memories of Lau—and of course you came through!

Stories about Lauinger are like the myriad chips of granite embedded in its concrete walls. Too many to count but collected together give the surface a texture and patina. A building you can feel. If you lean against it, it will leave an impression.

But first, a little history.

The backstory

Before 1970, the primary library on campus was Riggs, located in the south tower of Healy Hall. Built in 1891 with cast iron shelves as a fire deterrent, the space accommodated 105,000 volumes when it opened, more than double the size of the university’s collection at the time. By the 1950s, the number had grown to more than 200,000. University accreditation inspections from that era echoed student and staff concerns that the library had become inadequate to serve the needs of the community. The shelves were packed and overflow books filled the attics of Healy.

“Communications from stacks to reading rooms is poor, accessibility to the stacks limited, seating capacity excessively low, spaces for technical processes small and poorly laid out, lighting is very poor” read the disparaging evaluation from the Middle States inspectors in 1951.

Designs and locations for a new library emerged in the ensuing decade, but things got serious in 1964 when the president’s office established a Library Planning Committee. In 1965 the university hired architect John Carl Warnecke, known for his design of the John F. Kennedy gravesite in Arlington Memorial Cemetery, a library for the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and his work to redesign Lafayette Square by the White House, incorporating new buildings while preserving the old. This sensibility is what Georgetown sought—something modern and noteworthy that also echoed the surrounding historic architecture.

Various District commissions initially rejected Warnecke’s ultramodern Brutalist (raw concrete) design, mostly out of concern that the library’s location along the bluffs of the Potomac River would obstruct the Georgetown skyline. Sketches of the new building nodded to Healy Hall, with both offering deep gray stone exteriors and striking vertical elements. Eventually, the plans were approved after modifications were made to lower the height of the top floor.

The build

Construction on the $6 million project began in 1967. At the groundbreaking, President Gerard Campbell, S.J. said that in addition to the library being a resource for students and faculty, “for our alumni and friends, for that wider community in which Georgetown resides, it will mean a sharing in our intellectual resources, which our physical limitations have hitherto made difficult.”

Doors opened to the Joseph Mark Lauinger Memorial Library in April 1970. The building was named for the Class of 1967 alumnus killed earlier that year in Vietnam, whose grandfather and father were also alumni.

The massive new facility brought a significant improvement to research and study on the Hilltop. While Riggs Memorial Library and its annexes in Healy and Maguire Halls offered 57,000 square feet of space, Lauinger offered more than triple that at 175,000 square feet, with seating for 1,500 and capacity for one million volumes.

In addition to expanded areas for audio/visual equipment, photo duplication, special collections, and typing rooms, for the first time the library offered group study spaces, a map and print area, data processing space, and enclosed smoking rooms on every floor. Students and faculty found quiet and comfortable carrels and lounges throughout the building, many offering inspiring views of the Potomac River and the Washington area skyline.

Special collections and archives were housed on the fifth floor, along with a reading room for blind students with Braille writers and tape recorders. Because the library was built on a slope, the main entrance on the campus side was located on the third floor. Immediately to the right was the Pierce Reading Room for reserves—course materials for students to take turns reading, on site, in short increments. Originally the room was designed to remain open 24 hours during exam periods even when the rest of the library closed.

Beneath it all on the bottom floor was a parking garage.

The evolution

Eventually the parking was converted to interior space, and the university bookstore opened on the lowest level of Lauinger in 1973 (moving to the Leavey Center in 1988). In 1974 the extensive collection of Catholic books and theological materials from Jesuit seminary Woodstock College in Maryland became the renowned Woodstock Theological Library at Georgetown. Three years later, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus placed their archives in special collections at Georgetown, offering a trove of records for scholarly study which document Catholic history in the United States, including the ownership and sale of enslaved persons by the Province.

A major milestone for the library was reached in 1985 with the introduction of a digital card catalog system named George. Within two years, librarians stopped filing new paper cards and in 1993 the old analog system was dismantled and the paper recycled. Contents of the 2,304 drawers weighed 10,500 pounds.

In the early 2000s the Gelardin New Media Center opened, offering digital media equipment for the new millennium, and services to students and faculty including support for state-of-the-art video and audio production, and digitization of all kinds of scholarly material. In 2002 Lauinger went wireless, offering laptop users the opportunity to access online resources from anywhere in the library—no more need to plug into data jacks. Library staff discouraged people from overloading the network, however, with data-heavy uses like uploading large files or streaming video. DigitalGeorgetown opened in 2004 as an online repository of the university’s extensive and expanding digital collections.

Amid all the technological advances, other improvements were unfolding, too. In 2003 The Corp opened the second floor coffee shop Midnight Mug, fueling many late night study groups and creating a constant buzz in the space. In 2007 the library introduced Club Lau, a wildly popular annual DJ dance party to kick off the school year, held in the Pierce Reading Room.

In 2015, Booth Special Collections opened in its completely renovated 5th floor space, offering an environmentally controlled storage area, a classroom, and an enhanced reading room and exhibition space, aiming not only to preserve the university’s treasures but to make them accessible for learning.

And in 2016, the MakerHub opened on the first floor, offering members of the university community free space, training, and equipment to craft and create, using everything from sewing machines and bookbinding supplies to laser cutters and 3D printers. Students have designed and built innovative custom lab equipment, wearable health technology, and musical instruments, to name a few.

The future

With the ongoing support of philanthropy, the library continues to support the university in the formation of scholars committed to advancing knowledge for the common good.

A major focus is expanding access to the library’s vast collections, now comprising more than 4 million items including print and electronic books and journals, databases, artworks, video and audio recordings, maps, manuscripts and more. This critical work includes digitization, sharing, and preservation of scholarly materials.

Another invaluable asset since its founding is the library’s highly skilled information specialists, who help guide students and faculty through the ever changing and increasingly complex landscape of scholarly research, analysis, and knowledge creation. Comfortable navigating fragile old manuscripts, generative artificial intelligence, or data visualization, the library staff holds the distant past, current pursuits, and the evolving future in their sphere of care.

This year phased physical renovations of Lauinger began with a project to enlarge and improve the Pierce Reading Room, adding small collaboration rooms, a Digital Lab featuring a large-format video wall, and new floor-to-waffled ceiling windows opening up to sweeping views of the Potomac River. Enhancements ahead include more open, light-infused spaces with the addition of clear UV windows, more open seating areas as well as rooms for remote collaboration, a refreshed entry area, and an expanded MakerHub.

Lauinger will continue to be a space for memories. For late nights and early mornings. For quiet naps. For wrestling with ideas. For the pursuit of knowledge, formation, discovery, collaboration, creativity. For picture-perfect sunset skies through the tower frames.

A storied place.