Library Reopens at USC

USC’s Edward L. Doheny Memorial Library reopened with a gala academic ceremony Wednesday after 22 months of seismic retrofitting and general cleaning and restoration costing $17 million.

The 650,000-volume library, a focus of research in the humanities and social sciences, has been a striking example of Italian Romanesque architecture on the campus since it opened in 1932.

The ceremony began with an academic procession of faculty and was addressed by Mayor James K. Hahn, USC President Steven Sample and the director of the Harvard University library, Sidney Verba.

Verba, in the keynote address, gave a ringing defense of the role of libraries in modern education and characterized the Internet as often unreliable.

The library was damaged like so many other Los Angeles buildings in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. USC used funds granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover most of the costs of building 17 shear walls to strengthen the structure against lateral movement from earthquakes.

In order to add the shear walls, up to 75 feet high, elaborately crafted wood panels had to be removed and replaced when the project was complete.

All the books were removed during the work, and for the first time in the library’s history, the exterior was cleaned, from the bronze doors to the sculptures of Dante Alighieri and William Shakespeare that frame Doheny’s entrance. Inside, workers used cotton swabs and distilled water to wash much of the surfaces and ceilings, including gold leaf. Tobacco stains were removed from the time when smoking was permitted in the library.

Fire sprinklers were also installed during the work.

USC has 18 libraries, containing 4 million volumes, said Jerry D. Campbell, dean of the libraries.

“But I can hardly tell you how pleased I am that this one is reopened,” he said. “It is not only essential as a research facility by our graduate students, but it serves many of our undergraduates as well.”

The library was built with a $1-million gift from the family of Edward L. Doheny Sr. after the death in 1929 of the family’s only son, a USC alumnus.

The Los Angeles Conservancy recently recognized the Doheny restoration as one of seven “exemplary preservation projects” in Los Angeles for which it made awards.