Charles Construction in the Home Stretch

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj5Gdr0kK5o]

One of the most anticipated construction projects on Main Campus is moving closer to completion. Located at the heart of Temple University’s Main Campus and just steps away from the Paley library is the long-awaited, Charles library.

With only five months of work left on the building, Temple Update got an inside look at all of the hard work construction crews have done so far.

The Charles lobby features an expansive arched ceiling covered in cedarwood planks. Interior work still needs to be completed, such as flooring, painting, and plumbing. The central “Oculus” feature still needs to be completed as well.  The Oculus is designed for students to get a view of the large lobby from the building’s third and fourth floors.

Behind a simple door live the stacks of the future. The automated storage and retrieval system, or BookBots, take up this 5 story tall, 100-foot-deep room. 4 BookBots have access to thousands of containers with millions of titles in them. Most of the books in the Charles Library will be stored with the BookBots which frees up floor space for student use.

With all of the stacks moving to Charles over the summer, Paley will soon get a much-needed facelift. Dozie Ibeh, Associate Vice President of the Project Delivery Group at Temple said: “we’re looking at options for an academic unit to go into the Paley library”.

Ibeh did not provide specifics on which department might call Paley it’s new home, but that announcement will come soon enough as the Charles Library is still on track to open in the fall of 2019.

For more information, artistic renderings and the most recent information on the Charles library, visit Temple library’s website.