Windows
These are features on which architect and librarian may lock horns. The needs of the interior may call for different windows in every room. The apparent needs of symmetry may demand uniform height of all windows in each story outside. But proper planning requires settlement of the ideal windows by inside considerations. When the architect comes to try the effect of these in his façade they may not accord with any of his first sketches. Then comes the tug of war. Can the windows be worked in as they are? Can they be changed, and yet serve the same purpose? Can the height of the stories be changed, the rooms be swapped around? Can a becoming irregularity of exterior be devised?
It will usually be found possible for an ingenious architect to overcome apparently insurmountable difficulties, with surprisingly satisfactory results, even to the architect. In a recent problem, I wanted certain windows of certain dimensions. The architect did not see how they could be made to comport with the prescribed style of the building. But he would not despair, and after several attempts he devised windows which fully satisfied both of us, and pleased our building committee. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” even architecturally. Remember this when you come to windows. Anyway, don’t allow them to be planned for purely ornamental purposes. Insist that they properly light the rooms first, and afterwards be made comely, if possible.
“A library should have windows in abundance.”—Bostwick.[201] Another authority says you cannot have too many windows, or too large, even if you have to screen them. “Ample, even excessive light should be admitted to all reading rooms.”—B. R. Green.[202]
For small libraries, or those of medium size, the “box-frame sliding sash” windows are best, and can be got machine-made. They can be made tight, are easily managed, and furnish the simplest method of ventilation, as is elsewhere described.
In larger libraries there are various kinds used. Airtight, non-opening windows have been advocated for stacks, to exclude dust and drafts (the windows in the Library of Congress stack are of this kind), but they are not much favored. French windows, pivoted at the side, or long windows pivoted in the middle at top and bottom, will admit air freely in summer. There are various patented devices to hold a pivoted window open just so far as may be desired.
Really the whole matter is for the architect, with the librarian’s advice as to what is most wanted in each room. Light always, clear light, which usually precludes stained glass, but may demand translucent or prismatic glass. Ventilation, perhaps, which requires some way of opening the whole or part of the window. Easy cleansing always, which also requires ready opening, or a balcony outside. Due protection against fire, which requires wire-glass.
All windows in reading rooms should run up clear to the ceiling, for ventilation, and because top light penetrates further. “One square foot of glass near the ceiling admits as much light as ten near the floor. Pointed Gothic windows are bad.”—Burgoyne.[203] For the latter reason, all windows in reading rooms should be square-topped (which shuts out the Gothic style), and not overhung by eyebrows, nor should they have thick sashes, bars, leads or mullions, which hamper light. Leaded glass, especially in diamond or lozenge forms, is hard to clean. Clear, large panes of good plate glass are best. Study use rather than ornament everywhere, but most in windows.
These suggestions as to school rooms might apply to libraries:—
“The top of the windows is placed as near the ceiling as the finial will admit. Transom bars should not be permitted.”—Sturgis.[204]
“Large sheets of glass rather than the art filagree work so often used, which obstructs fifty per cent of the light,”—Burgoyne.[205]
With these essentials in mind look at the illustrations under this head, or passim, in Sturgis’s Dictionary of Architecture, and see how few of the picturesque windows there could be used for any reading or administration room of a modern library. Either pointed or overhanging tops, or heavy frames, or transoms, or mullions, or traceries, or leaded panes, must be barred out by the architect who designs libraries.
High or Low. If the windows must run to the ceiling, they have to be high. How long they are to be, how low they extend, depends on the height of the story and whether or not wall shelving is wanted below them. If the library has more than one story and has a stack to limit the height of stories to fourteen or fifteen feet, shelves all round the wall will be wanted in many of the rooms. The shelves at extreme height should only be eight feet to top of cornice, or could be any less height, down to about four feet, that the exigencies require. The window can take up as much of the remaining height of wall as needs of lighting demand. This leaves some alternatives of length and width for the architect in arranging his exterior.
High windows above wall shelving are much used, as exterior views will show. One consideration has occurred to me, which I have not seen mentioned. In libraries where there is no window low enough to jump out of, and only one entrance on a floor, where is the extra fire escape usually demanded by municipal building regulations?
High or Low for View. Some objection has been made recently to high window sills in a library because only low sills allow a cheerful outlook. I just put the alternative to a working girl, as a typical user, and she said, “How could I read if I was watching a squirrel?” This seems to put the matter in a nut-shell. Library windows are for light, not for sight. In private libraries or in clubs, the cosy comfort idea can come uppermost, but in the more practical rooms, especially in reading rooms chiefly for reference use and study, I should get diffused cheer, so to speak, from diffused light, and bar looking out of the window. As to the working rooms, much the same view might be taken, but if a librarian or a cataloguer pleaded for low sills and a cheery outlook, I might consider the “personal equation,” and concede it.
“In German schools, window-stools are set high, and the lower sash glazed with ribbed glass, so that the pupils cannot look out.”—Sturgis.
Skylights. From the plans I judge that flat skylights are more often used in English libraries than with us. Much objection is made here about keeping them tight and clean, and certainly leaks and grime are fearsome in a library. But I have heard architects aver that skylights can be made leak-proof, and if they can there are certainly many perplexities of light they would relieve.
“Top lights always should be double to stop direct sunlight and prevent draughts. There is great trouble in making them rain-proof.... Large squares of plate glass are better than small panes or leaded lights.... Double windows are necessary where traffic is heavy.”—Burgoyne.[206] [This is a provision to deaden noise. In America, a double window is only a protection against winter cold.]
Clerestories. There is often this alternative, to “cabin” the skylight, or set regular clerestory windows in the walls. This can be made a beautiful feature, and if it does not add too much to the expense, and if enough light can be got by them, in the proper spots, with provisions for easy cleaning, they are certainly free from most of the objections to skylights.
[See effective clerestory windows in the “Concourse” of the Salem Public Library.][207]