Academic

If you haven't been to the University's main site this week, you might have missed their special feature on the recent renovations at the Law School. Below are the first few paragraphs of the piece, but you should click through to the original to view the video tour of the renovations, featuring our own Douglas Baird.

With its rhythmic patterns, vertical lines, and use of glass, the iconic D???Angelo Law Library was the vision of renowned Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen. Completed in 1959, only a few years before his death, the modern structure wore down over time.

But the school recently completed a long renovation process that brought the library into the Information Age. The work has drawn widespread praise, including the 2008 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award for Rehabilitation, and critical acclaim across the nation.

???The whole idea of Saarinen, who was not only the architect but also the master planner for the University during the 1950s,??? explains Douglas Baird, the Harry A. Bigelow Distinguished Service Professor in Law, ???was that you could have distinguished works of modern architects that were simpatico with Gothic architecture but also distinctly modern.???