Dag Hammarskjöld Library

 library, United Nations, 1961_construction, international organization

4-story modernist library completed in 1961. Designed by Harrison, Abramovitz and Harris, it is linked to the Secretariat Building, situated at the southwest corner of the complex. The library serves the secretariat and the diplomatic missions with UN official documents, as well as free access to all the world's news media. It is not open to the general public. It holds 400,000 books, 9,800 newspapers and periodical titles, 80,000 maps, and the Woodrow Wilson Collection containing 8,600 volumes of League of Nations documents and 6,500 related books and pamphlets.

The main three floors are visible along First Avenue and from the north, with a lower basement floor visible along the lower-set frontage of 42nd Street; this level is set off from the floors above by a band of white marble. The east and west ends are clad in white marble with no openings, serving as bookends for the north and south facades, which have curtain walls of green-tinted glass set in aluminum framing. The lower roof line is at the 3rd floor, with the 4th floor set back on top, and clad in a curtain wall around all four sides, topped by a concrete "hat" that extends past the curtain wall, and curving up slightly towards the east and west ends.

The library is named after Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, who was also instrumental in securing the funding for the new building. A major donation came from the Ford Foundation.

www.un.org/Depts/dhl/