To my constituency this is like the biggest thing that’s happened in the history of
NC State.
What I’d like to do is just step back a moment to understand the context of the library
in the tradition of the south.
In the 1820s a certain individual up in Virginia decided that there needed to be - actually
it was more like the teens - but needed to be a new university; a public university different
from the privately funded universities that have generally been religiously associated
in our country.
Mr. Jefferson decided that he needed an academical village.
What did he do?
How did he begin this?
His academical village he recalled memories of going to the palace, the hunting palace
of the king of France.
One of his favorite places to go was Marly-le-Roi.
If you go look at the plan of Marly le-Roi, you will, in amazement, you will see the inspiration
for the plan of the University of Virginia academical village.
Top of the plan is the palace of the king, pavilions coming down the side are for the
visiting nobility, the spaces in between are for the servants.
Mr. Jefferson remembers this, and he comes home.
So what does Mr. Jefferson do?
The first thing he does, is at the head of the plan, he decides that that building needs
to be on the proportion of the Pantheon, because in knowledge is the power of the gods.
To the place of the palace of the king, he places the library for the University of Virginia.
There is an amazing, subtle reminder to us architecturally; the power of architecture
is the language.
Mr. Jefferson chooses Roman architecture and Palladio as a derivative of Roman architecture,
because he wants to talk about the timeless qualities of the values that are associated
with the American democracy and with learning.
Now one other thing happens in American history which is really, really important.
When the British came and burned Washington, they didn’t burn one building.
It was where the patents were registered in the new democracy for the inventions.
It was the one place they didn’t burn, because the British general didn’t want to be accused
of another burning of the library at Alexandria.
Now think about that for a moment.
The library on the Centennial Campus, the research industry partnership campus where
patents and inventions happen on a daily basis which are transferable to the welfare of our
people in North Carolina…the library, the iconic structure of Centennial Campus giving
new definition architecturally to our campus.
That’s the importance of this library to this campus.
It isn’t just an iconic formal structure; it’s something that strikes right to the
heart of the importance of NC State, to the people of North Carolina, and it is fitting
that like Mr. Jefferson, we don’t make that an administration building; we don’t make
that some kind of a building held in trust to one college; we make it the common place,
the place of knowledge, the place where we retain the records and the advancement of
knowledge on the Centennial Campus.
What an amazing message we are sending to the world.
There’s something special happening here, and this library is one of the iconic, iconic
structures of a new time in the triangle, the new role for our university.
It’s also interesting to me that none of that is happening on a certain campus.
We can really be proud of what’s going on at our university, and what’s happening
with the focus that we’re really putting forward, with the messages we’re sending
with this building, with the messages we’re sending about the research and scholarship
on our campus.