Langdell Celebrates Six Months of Success

Six months after reopening, Langdell Hall's renovation has been deemed a smashing success -- but a quiet one.

After all, it is a library.

Everyone from President Neil L. Rudenstine to the Harvard Law Record has hailed the reborn Harvard Law School Library as a vast improvement -- lighter, brighter, and with computer jacks to boot.

In remarks to the Librarian's Assembly of Harvard University on Oct. 3, 1997, Rudenstine called Langdell "an absolute triumph" and a demonstration of how "an incredibly patient staff, living under the most onerous conditions for 12 to 18 months, can survive and emerge into glorious surroundings."

Students are thrilled as well. At the rededication ceremonies on Oct. 25, 1997, a comment book recorded reactions such as "unbelievable," "magnificent," and "a haven for study".

The renovations brought light into the facility by removing bookshelves that blocked windows and adding 20 new chandeliers. The layout of the book collection is simpler and more straightforward and there's greater variety in seating throughout the library, including a dozen bean bag chairs and four chess tables.

The modern lamps that sit atop the old, restored 18-foot-long reading room tables evoke a traditional design; yet in the base of each lamp are power and data outlets for laptop computers.

"This was a bit of a gamble. When design work started, only a few students owned laptops and a network architecture that permitted a personal laptop to be plugged into any jack on the network did not exist at Harvard,'' said Librarian and Professor of Law Harry S. Martin.

Perhaps the greatest compliment, however, is a petition from the student body to keep the library open 24 hours a day.

"That's a tremendous compliment," Martin said, "but I'm not sure we were prepared for so much success."