Ralph Rapson at Phillips Exeter

Exeter Library, in Exeter, New Hampshire, by Louis I. Kahn, 1967 to 1972.

Color sketch by Ralph Rapson, from Ralph Rapson Sketches and Drawings from Around the World, courtesy of the Afton Press.

"Elemental in its contemporary directness and built also with the sense and durability of the great monuments of history is the Library at Philips Exeter Academy. In the spirit of the grand, classical tradition of the focal organizing space, the reading room is a central hall encircled by balconies containing the stacks and study alcoves. It is a space diagonally overlooked through giant circular openings in the interior screen walls that define the central area." — Paul Heyer, American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century.

Photo: Ryan D. Cole

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