Knowledge Under the Pyramids

Waxing Gibbous Moon Over the Marriott Library Pyramid, University of Utah, Salt Lake City - August 14, 2024

The main entrance of the J. Marriott Library catches your attention not with books but with a bill-board sized group picture of students in their Utah-red polo shirts next to equally gigantic letters: U BELONG. And having spent the better part of the last two days here, I definitely feel that spirit of welcome and friendliness, from the individual students themselves to the man in the white button-down checking in with folks in the dorm dining hall to be sure they understand how to order their food online, to the residence assistant Trinity hanging out at the entrance door to the dorm tower. I learned from Trinity where to get a mallet (to raise Charlotte’s bed to a bunk), and where the very coldest water-filling station was (a relief in the very hot temps). 

In a previous post I wrote about the waterfall in front of the library - constructed from light earthy-colored tiles nestled around a small grove of conifers. But I did not yet write about the library’s glass pyramids, reminiscent of the Louvre, set at the east edge of the large open plaza that fronts the library doors.

The University of Utah Library is almost as old as I am, opening its doors in 1968. The dedication, in May of that year, was by Wallace Stegner, Pulitzer prize winning author, environmental activist, and professor at University of Utah. Among his students: Wendall Berry, Raymond Carver, and one of my all-time favorites, Edward Abbey. Stegner wrote The Wilderness Letter in 1960, a letter that urges government protection for wild lands. In 1964 this letter was used to introduce the bill to establish the National Wilderness Preservation System. This brief Stegner bio includes an excerpt of the letter. It is an appeal, both spiritual and physical: wilderness is vital, and it is imperative to protect those places. Looking to the nearby mountains, and even to the nods around campus to wild spaces via  sizeable shade trees, vibrant blooming flowers, and open expanses of grass, Stegner’s words resonate. 

Fittingly, Wallace Stegner’s papers are housed in the library, though it was rededicated in 1969 as the J. Willard Marriott Library after J. Willard Marriott, Sr. contributed $1 million for library collections. Several renovations and expansions later, the library is now five floors and 516,000 square feet. The main entrance enters the third floor; floors one and two, and the bulk of the library's square footage, is underground. The open plaza I mentioned above (and in the foreground of the photo) is actually the roof of the lower two library floors!

According to the librarian who spoke with me over the phone, since the major part of the building is below ground, emergency exits are key. The glass pyramids seen in the plaza function as skylights, letting light into the lower floors, and are a part of the emergency exit system. And, according to one post I found, those skylit areas deep in the library are great study spots. 

Despite quite a bit of time searching for more information on the skylights, like when the pyramids were constructed, why that structure was selected, who designed them, I found nothing except the study spot post. I was curious if pyramids have any significance in Utah, and found this article on the Summum Pyramid tucked in the middle of a suburban Salt Lake City neighborhood that was constructed in 1979. There doesn’t seem to be a link to the library pyramids.

Not finding connections from other sources, I consider the possibilities. There are the pyramid shaped glass skylights that offer a lovely and mysterious aesthetic. The structures are a mimicry of their mountain backdrop. And there is the symbolism of allowing light to shine into the depths of a building which houses vast amounts of documented knowledge and actively pursued learning.

Source/Learn More
University of Utah: Library History