The library is located at the hilltop Mount Angel Bendictine Monestary. The simple single story inner facade in pale brick demurely continues the courtyard edge, blending with the traditional buildings on either side. Only after entering this facade and passing the circulation center is the visitor struck with the power and spirit of the plunging, uplifting arc of the central space, calmly palpable with light from above.

"Aalto works with light, with the route, with massing and modeling of the building form. These are classic architectural references. His range is formidable in that he appears able to handle an extraordinarily wide spectrum of architectural problems. He handles the urban and the rural, the large, medium and small building. He is able to absorb virtually every building material, be concrete and stucco, glass, copper, marble, brick, ceramics or timber."

— David Dunster, ed. Architectural Monographs 4: Alvar Aalto, Architectural Monographs 4. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978, 1984.

The Creator's Words

"When I personally have some architectural problem to solve, I am constantly . . . faced with an obstacle difficult to surmount, a kind of "three in the morning feeling." The reason seems to be the complicated, heavy burden represented by the fact that architectural planning operates with innumerable elements which often conflict. Social, human, economic and technical demands combined with psychological questions affecting both the individual and the group, together with movements of human masses and individuals, and internal frictions Ð all these form a complex tangle which cannot be unravelled in a rational or mechanical way. The immense number of different demands and component problems constitute a barrier from behind which it is difficult for the basic idea to emerge . . . I forget the entire mass of problems for a while, after the atmosphere of the job and the innumerable difficult requirements have sunk into my subconscious. Then I move on to a method of working which is very much like abstract art. I just draw by instinct, not architectural synthesis, but what are sometimes childlike compositions, and in this way, on this abstract basis, the main idea gradually takes shape, a kind of universal substance which helps me to bring innumerable contradictory component problems into harmony."

— Alvar Aalto

from Malcolm Quantril. Alvar Aalto: A Critical Study. New York: Shocken Books, 1983. p5.

Details

Located at the Mount Angel Benedictine Monastery, east of Mount Angel, Oregon in the center of the Willamette Valley.

The main floor of the library is also its top floor, at grade with the central hilltop green of the monastery. Two more floors are tucked below, stepping down the steep hillside.