1st Night in Chicago John Hancock Center

Joe and Rika Mansueto Library @ UChicago

In the five months since it opened to patrons, the library has rapidly emerged as a Chicago icon — one that is an integral part of campus life at UChicago and a workhorse of the University’s library system. Its striking design and scholarly mission have garnered worldwide interest from architecture publications, technology websites, and writers interested in the future of libraries.

All the while, the library’s massive book-loading project went on under patrons’ feet, at an astounding rate of 20,000 volumes a day on average.

"I give you Chicago ... "

Chicago Skyline, circa 1920.

“ ... It is not London and Harvard. It is not Paris and buttermilk. It is American in every chitling and sparerib. It is alive from snout to tail.”1 “It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago. She outgrows his prophecies faster than he can make them.”2

1. Henry Louis Mencken, American Journalist and Critic

2. Mark Twain, 1883