University of Chicago alumni give
$25 million in support
of new Library
The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library was designed by acclaimed architect Helmut Jahn and will have the capacity to house up to 3.5 million volumes of print material—setting the University of Chicago apart from peers who are moving books off-campus.
When Joe and Rika Mansueto were students, their days often ended at the library.
“Like most students at the University of Chicago, we found the Library to be a central part of the experience,” says Joe Mansueto, Chairman and CEO of Morningstar, Inc., a premier investment research firm. “It was really interwoven into our daily routines at the University of Chicago. So when we were looking to give a gift to the school, a new library resonated with us.”
The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, named through a $25 million gift and designed by renowned Chicago-based architect Helmut Jahn, will be a partially underground facility topped with a 35-foot-high glass dome. It will have the capacity to house 3.5 million volumes of print material—making the University of Chicago the country’s sole top academic research library to keep its entire collection on campus.
“This library combines three of our passions: great design, the free exchange of information and the University of Chicago. That’s why Rika and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of this project,” says Joe Mansueto, who received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the College in 1978 and his MBA from the Chicago GSB in 1980. Rika Mansueto received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the College in 1991.
“With this gift, we really wanted to give back to the University that means so much to us,” Joe Mansueto adds.
3.5 Million Volumes of Print Material On-Campus
While other universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Brown, have moved books off campus, the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library will ensure that books will remain at the center of the University of Chicago campus.
“These scholarly materials are at the very core of intellectual life and intellectual activity at the University of Chicago,” says President Robert J. Zimmer. “This effort to keep the materials at the University and in the heart of our campus is a reaffirmation of their immense value.”
Adds Judith Nadler, Director of the University Library, “This collection of immense scholarly value will be housed, preserved and delivered to our community in a state-of-the-art environment.”
State-of-the-art Conservation and Preservation Facility
Housed within the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library will be a state-of-the-art conservation and preservation facility, a special collection service area, a grand reading room and the capacity for 3.5 million volumes of print material, which will be contained in a high-density, automated shelving system.
Joe Mansueto says of his and Rika Mansueto’s reactions to the building, “We love the innovative design and progressive approach to storing the library’s collection. This has the potential to be an iconic building on campus.”
A faculty committee organized in 2003 and researched and reviewed how to increase shelf space at the University. It determined that following the trend of moving materials off-site would not be ideal, and that the ultimate solution would be to construct a facility on campus.
“The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library will make Chicago unique among American university libraries in its commitment to cutting-edge scholarship in the library research fields. In practice, we will becoming a place scholars come to from other universities,” says Andrew Abbott, the Gustavus F. & Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Sociology and the College.
The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library will be located beside the Joseph L. Regenstein Library at South Ellis Avenue and East 57th Street. Construction on the project will begin this summer, and the new library will open in the fall of 2010.
By Julia Morse
