Humboldt Park Library and Reading Room
A 1,400-volume perimeter library in quarter-sawn white oak, with radiator airflow routed through the casework and brass hardware made for the job.
- Location
- Humboldt Park, Chicago, IL
- Client
- Private residence and collector
- Scope
- Shelving, base cabinets, rolling ladder
- Timber and finish
- White oak, soap wash
- Install
- Four days on site
- Shelf capacity
- 1,420 linear feet
- Hardware
- Unlacquered solid brass
What the room asked for.
The room had to hold 1,400 rare volumes in a 1912 parlor with original horsehair plaster and a cast-iron steam radiator sitting in the south window bay.
Plaster walls well out of plumb
Measured on site, the north wall ran 1.85 inches out of plumb over a 12-foot height. Pre-built millwork would have left gaps, or needed quarter-round trim to hide them.
Radiator heat with nowhere to go
Boxing in the radiator without a way out would have warped solid shelves and baked antique spines. The airflow had to work without visible plastic louvers.
A 29-inch door at the top of a dogleg stair
Every vertical upright ran past 10 feet, and the parlor could only be reached through a narrow stairwell turn.
Drawn before anything was cut.
Every component was drawn in joinery cross-section before anything was cut, so the parts met on site the way they met on paper.
How it went.
Because the joinery and the scribe geometry were settled before anything was cut, the 22-foot run went in over four working days with two people. No table saw on site, so no dust on finished floors.
The rest of the archive.