For those of us who like books, who like to read, who like to look at pictures in books, well we have a place for you to go round. It is in Glasgow Scotland, and it is a round “Reading Room” (a kind of library space) that makes you feel good just to sit in. It was designed between 1936 and 1939, before WWII as a place for university students to study.
The architects were T. Harold Hughes and David Stark Reid Waugh. They first had more traditional ideas of a courtyard-shaped building, but the selected design was a domed circular building. The Pantheon in Rome is an ancient building that had the same shape and was probably inspiration for this Reading Room.
We visited the Reading Room and want to show you what it looks like inside. Notice the cables that hold up the lighting, the windows up high, called clerestory windows, to bring in plenty of light, and note how even the wooden desks are built as curved shapes to mimic the shape of the building. Take a peek:
Learn more about the McMillan Round Reading Room.