Washington University in St. Louis
John M. Olin Library Master Plan

Olin is the University’s central Library and a campus crossroads, where the University community connects daily through study, research, collaboration, and chance encounter. Completed in 1962, the modernist library building has three stories and a basement, housing liberal arts collections, full library services, and a range of other University programs.  

Our Master Plan focused on achieving an increase in student seating, improving the visibility of Library staff, creating new settings for collaborative campus partnerships, expanding exhibition opportunities for special collections, and increasing the library’s connectivity with the surrounding network of campus pedestrian and bicycle paths.   

Working with the Library leadership, staff and other University stakeholders, conceptual options were developed and reviewed, The agreed renovation and expansion strategy connects the north and south sides of the campus with a new interior main street through the Library, excavates below existing space to create two new floors for special collections storage and Library programs, and inserts a four-level tower housing gallery and study space within an interior atrium, all without expanding the existing building’s footprint.