LIGHTING UP THE BOOKS

The original Skillman Library, at the heart of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, was always a bit of an arsenal for books: a limestone and brick fortress with narrow slit windows and all the warmth of a bunker. Now Ann Beha Architects have expanded and renovated the library (photo by Florian Holzherr). Next week, ArchitectureWeek contributing editor Michael J. Crosbie will explain how Skillman has shed its armor, shedding light on readers and books and offering new views out to the campus quadrangle.

BUILDING AN AURA OF WAR

When the firms of Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Griffiths Rankin Cook designed the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, they wanted to impart to visitors a hint of the brutality that Canadian Forces have suffered in battle. The result is a concrete structure in which angled walls with unfinished surfaces lean in and suggest a pressure on passersby (photo by Tom Arban). Next week, writer Brant Scott will explore some of the ways concrete was manipulated in design and construction to create the atmosphere of the battlefield.