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R.M. Cooper Library -- Thirty Years at the Heart of the University

Cooper Page

R.M. Cooper Library originally had four floors – Ground (currently Level 3), first (currently Level 4, the entrance level), second (currently Level 5) and a basement (currently Level 1) used for mechanical equipment and storage. Each 34,400-square-foot floor was larger than the entire previous library. The building featured a central stairway for quick access to the upper or lower floors, a “reading porch” around the perimeter of the building and a “one entrance, one exit” design to reduce the problem of stolen books. It also featured large windows for adequate lighting and an air-conditioning system connected to a condenser water-cooling pond in front of the building. Architects Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle and Wolff, Yeargin Construction Company and Clemson University won an Award of Merit for R.M. Cooper Library from the U.S. Office of Education, the American Institute of Architects and Education Facilities Laboratories. The building also won a first place award from the S.C. Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The library was named for Robert Muldrow Cooper, who had been a member of Clemson’s Board of Trustees for 44 years and president of the Board for 15 years at the time of his death in February 1966. The building was dedicated on October 14, 1966, during Homecoming.

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Updated August 14, 2007 | Copyright © 2003-2006 Clemson University. All rights reserved.
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Photographs by Micki Reid and Jon Truesdale.