Paintings and sculpture appear in the special-collections reading room and many newly available spots elsewhere. Photograph by Anton Grassl Formerly, one took a rickety elevator to the library's entrance, on the fourth floor, debouching into the main reading room. The top of the relic elevator has been preserved as a table in the now-tranquil great space. Anton Grassl The new main entrance is just through the front doors of Langdell. Anton Grassl The building offers 854 places to plug in a laptop for access to legal resources and the Internet. Anton Grassl

Law Library Amended

Langdell Hall reopened for business on September 2 at 3 p.m. after a $35.9-million renovation. Except for a classroom at each end, the 183,000-square-foot building is now entirely devoted to the Law Library. It had been closed "for one year, two months, 22 days, and nine and one-half hours," calculates librarian and professor of law Terry Martin '65 with the air of one who has welcomed the passing of every minute of that time.

"We had to decide whether to remodel piecemeal or all at once," said Martin at the start of the project ("Langdell Remodels, Tomes in Transit," March-April 1996, page 77). "We decided to do it in one fell--intense, unpleasant, but shorter--swoop." A million books went into storage, librarians scattered, makeshift arrangements served.

The entire library is now fully air-conditioned. (The main reading room used to get so hot sometimes that the lights had to be dimmed and the windows flung open, admitting along with zephyrs an occasional bat and once even an owl, who lived for days on a high ledge by a Latin inscription.) A new heating system replaces radiators. Plumbing and electrical systems are new. Four new, spacious elevators and new, wider stairwells improve access throughout the building. Twenty new chandeliers replace the dropped ceiling in the reading room. Bookcases no longer block the windows. "Everything is new," says David Warrington, librarian for special collections. "When we left, we were told to bring nothing back, not even wastebaskets."

"We restored and have used 17 of the old 18-foot-long tables from the reading room," says Martin. "We still have a few of the old ones left, available for $5,000 each, delivery included."

The law school's student newspaper "waxed positively rhapsodic about the transformation," says Martin. "The renovated library provides a more comfortable environment for people and books, quicker orientation and easier movement through the building, integrated stack and study areas, greater seating variety, more space for computers, microforms, and multimedia, and gender equity in rest rooms."

The law library's stacks may now be nicer than one's living room (above, and right). Anton Grassl