<P>The distinctive original building was designed in the late 1960s by <A title="William Pereira" href="http://blog.creaders.net/wiki/William_Pereira"><FONT color=#002bb8>William Pereira</FONT></A> to sit at the head of a canyon. Considering the location, Pereira originally conceived of a spherical building resting atop a pedestal, with the structural elements on the inside. After several drafts of this ball-shaped design, the structural elements were deemed as being too space-consuming, and they were moved to the outside of the structure, essentially resulting in the current "lantern" design. Pereira envisioned that future additions to the original building would form terraced levels around the tower base descending into the canyon. The tower is a prime example of <A title="Brutalist architecture" href="http://blog.creaders.net/wiki/Brutalist_architecture"><FONT color=#002bb8>brutalist architecture</FONT></A>. It rises 8 stories to a height of 110 ft (33.5 m). The four upper stories of the tower itself house the SSHL and East Asia collections.</P> <P>A photo of the building taken by <A title="Julius Shulman" href="http://blog.creaders.net/wiki/Julius_Shulman"><FONT color=#002bb8>Julius Shulman</FONT></A> was used as the cover image for James Steele's chronicle of Pereira's career, called simply <I>William Pereira</I>.</P> <P><IMG border=0 alt="" src="http://blog.creaders.net/upfile/201004/20100419142239324790.jpg"></P>
Thanks for posting this. Now that the 中国馆 is the 山寨版 of UCSD 图书馆, and I have seen the real thing so many times, will not tire myself for a trip to the "spitting image".
