Frances Loeb Library

If you are interested in playing with Gropius’ clipboard (!!!), you’ve gotta visit this library. If you are interested in architecture or urban design, especially modern and/​or Boston-​area and/​or GSD-​graduate architecture or urban design, you’ve gotta visit this library. Actually, what you’ve really gotta do is spend at least a few days a week in this library, and you’ve also gotta check out so many books that you’ll be compelled to buy a new bookcase or two to accommodate them when you run out of coffee-​table AND kitchen-​counter AND bed space because they’ve totally taken over your home. Ideally, you should also engage in some recall wars.
In addition to the circulating collection, the library also has a dedicated Le Corbusier collection established by Sert (in addition to the 500ish books by/​about him, you’ll find Le Corbusier’s original sketches for the Carpenter Center that he’d mail to Sert from overseas) as well as a jaw-​droppingly amazing Special Collections department. It includes about half of Sert’s design plans and documents (not only from his time in the US, so it includes the Spanish Republic’s Pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair and all that, yippeeeeee!!!), while the other half of the Cambridge-​specific collection is owned by the city. It has GSD studio portfolios, evolution of urban design wonders, so many books (old and new, fragile and sturdy, obscure and unobscure), proposals for the renovation of City Hall Plaza, losing (and winning) design contest entries… and yes, it has GROPIUS’ CLIPBOARD, which is far heavier than it looks (and which, alas, you can’t check out). Right, so you can play with Gropius’ clipboard (the boxes and boxes of Gropius’ documents are in Houghton though, so you’ll have to head over there to play with those). What more could a girl (or boy) possibly want? Schedule an appointment with Special Collections and check it all out. Especially if you’re working on any project having to do with Boston-​area architecture, housing planning, or urban design, this is an indispensable resource. (For something that’s just as radical as it is old-​school, check out the Olmsted collection. Who doesn’t like the Emerald Necklace?)
As if that weren’t enough, the people who work at and run this library are amazingly cool, smart, and welcoming. And, I was just informed today that it’s open to anyone («and anyone does show up»), so stop by and get an access card from the front desk. You won’t be able to check out books, but you will be able to loiter around all day and also access the Special Collections.
GROPIUS’ CLIPBOARD!!! @$Q#$$%&#@!%!!! Seriously. Oh, and the building’s concrete is really pretty. Look at it kissably close.
To repeat: @$Q#$$%&#@!%!!!