Smith College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution for women in Northampton, Massachusetts, has chosen Maya Lin as the architect on the redesign of the college’s Neilson Library. Maya Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. She will work with the Shepley Bulfinch firm that has designed libraries at Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, and the University of Notre Dame.
Smith College President Kathleen McCartney stated that “Maya Lin thinks of libraries as today’s temples–spaces for reflection, intellectual exploration, and discussion of ideas. I am confident that she and the design team will work in close partnership with the Smith community to create a library that will showcase our collections and enrich our community in ways we can only begin to imagine.”
The Neilson Library was built in 1909 and expanded in 1962 and again in 1982. It is named after Smith College’s third president, William Allan Neilson. The renovation of the library is expected to being in 2017 and to be completed in 2019.