Sackler Library, Oxford, UK



Architect
Robert Adam with Paul Hanvey of ADAM Architects
Date Built
Opened 24 September 2001
Location
 1 St John Street
Description


The Sackler Library describes itself as, "...one of the principal research libraries of the University of Oxford and specialises in Archaeology, Art History, and Classics (Ancient History and Literature)."  It, ".... incorporates the collections of the former Ashmolean Library (including the Griffith Institute Library and the Western Art Library), the Classics Lending Library, the Eastern Art Library, the Coin Room Library, and the History of Art Library."

The entrance is through a circular pavilion that the architects say, "... refers to the Temple of Apollo at Bassae, first excavated by C.R. Cockerell, the architect of the Ashmolean Museum."




At the heart of the library is this rotunda, "... with an open glass roof, designed to be glimpsed from different viewpoints around the site and to relate to a series of famous circular buildings across Oxford."