Mt. Angel Library Designed by Alvar Aalto
I finally grabbed a minute out of my busy schedule to take a short road trip out to one of Oregon’s most beautiful areas. Mt. Angel and Silverton are host to a handful of interesting sights. Silverton is known for being home to the magnificent Silver Falls State Park, a beautiful 7 mile hike through a canyon that takes you by 10 waterfalls (and even behind a couple). The small city also hosts the Oregon Gardens which is home to the Gordon House, the only Oregon residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
On this particular fall day, my mission was to finally visit the Mt. Angel Abbey library that was designed by the world famous Finnish designer Alvar Aalto. The famous architect only designed a couple of buildings in the US and the library was designed and constructed later on in his career (1970). Aalto loved to design libraries so when he received the request from the monks at Mt Angel Abbey (at a time when his fame was at its peak and he was turning down commissions all over the world) and he accepted, it was possibly divine intervention at work.
For those who don’t know, Alvar Aalto is one of the most famous Finnish architects of all time. He is sometimes referred to as the “father of Nordic Modernism” blending his earlier Classism influences with the more modern International Style which resulted in minimalist, organic designs in his architecture, art and furniture designs. It has been estimated that during his career, Aalto designed over 500 individual buildings, approximately 300 of which were built, the vast majority of which are located in Finland and other cities in Europe.
Being an organic architect, Aalto designed the library into the hilltop site at the Mt Angel monastery so that it blends with the nature surrounding it. There was a handful of fir trees that were in the way of construction so he made design adjustments to move the building over to allow space for the trees. For the interior design, Aalto wanted to maximize the natural light to make it easier to read but not have direct sun glare from large windows (which are typical in modernist designs but distracting for a library in Aalto’s opinion). In order to bring in large amounts of natural light from the ceiling instead of large windows on the walls, he invented a cone shaped skylight where the light plays off of the inside walls of the cone until it reaches the interior space illuminating the space effectively even in our gray climate. The library also houses one of the most impressive collections of Aalto furniture in the world. All of the furniture, desks, lamps, coat racks, hardware were designed by Aalto and it is a breathtaking experience to go through and look at and touch all of the different designs.
The library is a short road trip from Portland and worth the drive. Everyone working at the library was exceptionally nice and encouraged us to look around, take photos and enjoy the architecture. They also sell a book on site about the design and construction of the library and some of Aaltos vases.
Library location:
One Abbey Dr.
St. Benedict, OR 97373
Here are a couple more photos, my battery ran out on my camera so there are a handful of phone shots mixed in as well:
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