How Did Mckim Build The Boston Public Library

The Boston Public Library is set in a dense urban location, something that Charles Follen McKim had to take into account when designing the structure. Given the site facing Copley Square, Mckim wanted to contribute to the masterful architectural forms that were extant on the square. He created the library in the Beaux-Arts Classical style, influenced by his education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in France, something that his firm McKim, Mead, and White would become renowned for. McKim grew up in a well to do family of abolitionists. Later on in his development he attended Harvard University in Cambridge until his education took him to the École des Beaux-Arts in France. His time in Europe greatly affected his architectural ideas, as he saw

In the early 1880s the old library had been outgrown and a new one was desired. A competition was set up to create a new library on Art Square (as Copley Square was then known), but after all of the designs were deemed unsuitable the project sat in limbo with the city architect. McKim was eventually approached to create a design for the library in 1887. His design was accepted and he requested almost double what the original budget had been previously for the building to create his design. Proposing the allocation of one million dollars, he eventually used over two-and-a-half million on the final design, more than five times the original budget. The massive spending was both criticized and lauded due to his honest spending practices and high quality of work. No aesthetic detail was overlooked by McKim, himself making the final decisions about almost every aspect of the building, down to the veining of

The original design of the façade called for a single arched doorway, but after careful thought, McKim altered the design to better reflect the idea that all were welcome at this “palace for the people.” After walking through a vaulted vestibule and into the main entrance hall, there is an overwhelming feeling of respect for the building, one that causes the visitor to want to be as quiet and stealth as possible because the architecture is the only thing that is speaking. One feels as if they should not be lurking in the quiet corridors, not suggesting one path over another. McKim endured great criticism for this discombobulation of floorplan. The firm’s inexperience in designing a public building of such a magnitude certainly is evident in the inefficient design. Upon reaching the apex of the stairs, the miscalculation of design becomes evident. The intended destination of the visitor, the reading room, is accessed by an indirect route that takes them through the delivery room after traipsing along the upper hall. The private collections of the third story are more likely to be found before the portal into the main hall even though they are accessed by a long, dark stairway that does not seem to be very