Suzzallo Library Reading Room, University of Washington. The Suzzallo Library, named after Henry Suzzallo, the fifteenth president of the university, opened in 1926. The architects of Suzzallo Library, Charles H. Bebb and Carl F. Gould Sr., had a vision of a campus united by design and reflecting the age-old traditions of the academy as personified by Oxford and Cambridge. Suzzallo Library was to be their centerpiece. The library embodies collegiate gothic with its soaring west facade and row of eleven 35 foot high stained glass windows and terra-cotta and cast-stone figures. When planning began in 1922, Henry Suzzallo envisioned a library that was “the soul of the university.”

A highlight of Suzzallo Library is the Reading Room. Measuring 65 feet high, 52 feet wide, and 250 feet long, the Reading Room features a vaulted ceiling elaborately decorated with richly colored and gilded stenciling. The oak bookcases are topped with a hand-carved frieze representing native plants of Washington state. The tall, traceried windows incorporate leaded glass which is intended to break the direct rays of light. Medallions representing 28 different Renaissance watermarks are worked into the design. At each end of the Reading Room there is a hand-painted world globe suspended from the ceiling, each of which bears the names of different explorers. (Photos by Franklin Donahoe)