MEDIA ADVISORY/PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
For Information, contact: Joel Blumenthal, University at Albany, 518- 442-3070
or Joseph Tardi, Joseph Tardi Associates, 518-782-1211
New Library on Saturday, Oct. 18
President Karen R. Hitchcock will "Top Off" the University at Albany�s new $22 million library on Saturday, October 18. A brief ceremony is scheduled to begin at 6:15 p.m., on the second-floor Terrace behind the Campus Center. The media are invited.
The library, scheduled to open in 1999, is the first new academic building on the University�s Uptown Campus since it was dedicated in 1967. The library will include: laboratory facilities for computing and digital imaging, information retrieval and instructional technology; electronic multi-media classrooms and seminar rooms; a 600,000-volume Science Library on three floors, with networked databases; more than 500 seats for users, including individual and group study facilities with data and computing access; the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, a curriculum development area for faculty; the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives; and a Preservation and Digital Imaging Library.
The 5-story, 142,000 square-foot library, with funding provided by the State University Construction Fund, was designed by Lockwood Greene Architects, and is being built by Sweet Associates, Inc. of Albany. When complete, it will be enveloped by 472 precast panels weighing an average of 6 tons each. The structure includes 8800 cubic yards of concrete, and 784 tons of steel reinforcement. Representatives from Sweet Associates and Architect Ray Gomez (who worked with campus architect Edward Durell Stone on the original design, and with Lockwood Greene on the library design), will be on hand and available to the media at the ceremony.
For additional information about this project, see the Library Update article.
(Attention Editors: The "topping off" ceremony, which will include the raising of a large girder under spotlights and -- weather permitting -- fireworks, will be an outstanding photo opportunity. From Campus Center, follow signs for "President�s Recognition Dinner.")