304
THE GREEN BAG
cost, including plants for heating and venti lation, but not including furnishing, has been $365,000. The cost has been paid out of the surplus earned by the school. When the building is completed, its length will be increased by one hundred and thirty-two feet. In other words, the portion now built is about two-thirds of the whole building. The material is buff limestone. The style is classic. The general effect is square and lofty, reminding one of other works of the architects, Messrs. Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge. Perhaps the most noticeable features are the great Ionic columns — which may serve as reminders of the modest columns that used to ornament Dane Hall. The east and west fronts are identical. In the northern part of Langdell Hall as it now stands, but in the central part of the building as it is to be, is the library stack, which ultimately will accommodate three hundred thousand volumes. As yet only the eastern half of the stack is fitted with shelving, the western half being used for one supplemental reading room and one small lecture room. At the north and south ends of the stack are studies for the professors and the librarians. The stack is fireproof, with glass floors and metal shelving; and on one of the floors are desks for the professors, separated by glass par titions for the sake of quiet, so that the professors have that ease of consulting the books and one another which has long been an attractive feature of the law school. South of the stack is a broader section of the building, containing on the ground floor a lecture room called Langdell Centre, which is somewhat larger than Austin North and accommodates about three hundred and fifty. Above this lecture room is the main reading room, somewhat larger than the main reading room in Austin Hall. Still farther south is a lower and narrower wing, containing on the ground floor a- lecture room which accommodates about one hundred and seventy-five; and upon the upper floor is another reading
room which connects with the main readmg room by a passage in which are placed works of reference. Around the walls of the reading rooms are several thousands of volumes, chiefly reports that are duplicates of copies in the stack. The main reading room, the south reading room, and the pas sage connecting these two accommodate two hundred and seventy-seven; and the sup plemental reading room in its stack accommo dates eighty-four. The public entrances to Langdell Hall are at the head of broad steps leading to the east and west ends of a corridor that runs between the lecture room called Lang dell Centre and the one called Langdell South. There is also a subway connect ing Langdell with Austin. When the whole of Langdell Hall is built, there will be to the north of the stack precisely the same amount of reading room and of lecture room accommodation as is now found to the south of the stack; but the interior arrangements may differ in some details from the arrangements of the parts now completed. The present small lecture room in the stack is to become part of the region for storing books, and the present supplemental reading room in the stack is to become a corridor connecting the southern reading rooms with those which are to be constructed in the northern extension. In addition to the features already described, there are various conveniences, including a room for the Harvard Law Review, metal lockers, a freight elevator, and an electric lift for books. The woodwork throughout is dark oak. It ought to be added that among the most attractive features are the adequate studies for the professors and the successful schemes for light and for ventilation. The walls will soon be ornamented with engravings and paintings, without, however, robbing Austin Hall. According to the present mode of divid ing the work of the school between the two buildings, Austin Hall is devoted .to most
