VIDEO: Touring the Tower – The Library
Go inside the Tower’s historic Life Science Library with UT’s historic preservation planner.
As the UT Tower’s restoration progresses, we’re giving you an inside look at all the spaces that make it and the Main Building so special. Join historic preservation planner Kim Barker on a tour of the Life Science Library on the second floor as she describes the work being done to restore the Tower’s features to their original designs.
The three rooms that comprise what is now the Life Science Library are the grandest spaces within the University’s most famous building. The two cavernous and ornate reading rooms — the Hall of Noble Words and the Hall of Texas — are connected by the Hall of the Six Coats of Arms, which is where rows of card catalogs once stood and where books are still requested and delivered at the original loan desk.
Behind this room are the book stacks, whose shelves are supported by closely spaced steel columns that run the whole height of the Tower. Today, three floors (4, 5 and 6) house books. At the peak of the Tower’s usage as a library, floors 1 through 17 held books. That’s a lot of paper and an incredible amount of weight.
“Touring the Tower – The Library” is the second in a four-part series of videos exploring the work being done within the Tower and Main Building. Watch below to learn more. For Part 1, click here.
Our Tower. Our Time.
We are embarking on a venture to restore, revitalize and reimagine the most iconic, most beloved landmark on our campus: the UT Tower.
Visit tower.utexas.edu to learn more and to support this once-in-a-lifetime effort.
