Library in Oxford
Oxford, new humanities library and art gallery
A major new library for Oxford University, the large building is discretely housed in a large circular building to one side of the Ashmolean Museum and behind nearby Georgian terraced houses. The entrance is a smaller complementary round building onto the street, with full classical orders and, at the time, the largest structural glass rooflight yet built. In courtyards around the main library, wings house the Griffiths Institute, the Wind Collection and the Sands Gallery, which is accessed directly from the Ashmolean Museum. Over the top of the Griffiths Institute, on the windowless façade of the Sands Gallery, is a bronze frieze by the Scottish sculptor, Alexander Stoddart.