Wood-varnished Bass improves on CCL … sort of
It is peculiar that the most popular study space at Yale — a university so revered for its architecture — is a basement.
The two underground levels of Bass Library, however, are sumptuously decorated, equaling in material beauty the interiors of Yale’s other recently renovated buildings. The space — I hesitate to call it a building — is certainly better appointed than the Cross Campus Library it replaced, which had become a ragtag collection of decaying sofas and leaking roofs by the time it was closed last year.
Even so, the wood-varnished Bass is lacking both in...
#2
By (Anonymous)
2:04p.m. on April 24, 2008
cont'd
So the author of the Bass critique is right. Future Yalies will never know what they missed in the CCL sensory deprivation tank.
KT
Bass is a bit of a hodgepodge with a over-sensibility one might described as stodgy NY law firm. It suffers in comparison to CCL on at least two scores. First CCL had a cohesive, one might saw overpowering minimalist theme and was true to this from the overpowering whitenes, the cube-like furniture, the symmetric bare stairs to the very card catalogs (and unintentionally, the white noise buzz of the carrel lighting.)
All of which made it inhuman and somewhat oppressive. Which gave the place its power as a studying efficiency generator. When you went to CCL and sat in a blinding white minimal carel with the buzzing light, your mind became thirsty for anything, even study material not to mention one's desire to get the hell out of their fast resulting in a let's get this over fast mode of study. So though not conducive to deep pondering, CCL was great for cram it in your head memorization.
Second was the oft-criticized layout with all traffic having to pass the bottleneck at the front by the book checkout. This funneling made the tables near the Tunnel ideal for socializing, or to put it more crudely "scoping." Everyone had to parade by and parade they often did. The large uncluttered windows of the twin pits provide wonderful mostly gray New Haven light for the purpose.