Imagining a 21st-Century Library: A Conversation With Maya Lin

Members of the Smith community are invited to meet two key figures—renowned architectural designer Maya Lin and architect Carole Wedge—who will be leading the redesign of the college’s Neilson Library.

“A Conversation with Maya Lin,” to be held noon – 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, in Sage Hall, will feature Lin and Wedge, president of Shepley Bulfinch, talking about their partnership in the Neilson Library project in a conversation moderated by President Kathleen McCartney.

Smith’s Board of Trustees announced last April that Maya Lin Studio and Shepley Bulfinch will partner with the college on the re-imagining of Neilson Library. The project—which will be the college’s largest capital project of the next decade—is scheduled to break ground sometime in 2017. The September 16 event is intended to mark the public launch of the project and to offer one of many ways that the broader college community can contribute to and support the process.

When the Maya Lin Studio/Shepley Bulfinch collaboration was announced last April, President McCartney noted, “Maya Lin’s celebrated work within the combined fields of architecture, art and landscape—coupled with Shepley Bulfinch’s extensive experience in creating 21st-century academic libraries—will create a new library that is not only functional but forward-looking.”

“Maya Lin thinks of libraries as today’s temples—spaces for reflection, intellectual exploration, and discussion of ideas,” McCartney added. “I am confident that she and the design team will work in close partnership with the Smith community to create a library that will showcase our collections and enrich our community in ways we can only begin to imagine.”

Additional information about Smith’s library project can be found at http://www.smith.edu/libraryproject/. This information will be updated regularly as planning progresses.