Princeton University, Firestone Library

Princeton University Firestone Library

Superior Scaffold was selected to help in the renovation of Princeton’s Prestigious Firestone library because of its long history working with historic buildings on the campus. We were one of the few companies there throughout the entire process.

The renovation is a long-term project that is being done in multiple phases and will take almost 10 years to finish, during which time the library will remain open, and its collections available during normal hours of operation.

Superior erected as system scaffold allowing crews to get access to all areas of this monumental restoration and parapet wall replacement project. The library has to remain open while crews do the work. Superior also provided a series of debris netting and trash chutes to the project.

In light of the library’s importance in teaching and research at Princeton, the University has committed extensive resources to this comprehensive renovation of Firestone Library. The Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library opened in 1948 as the first large American university library constructed after World War II. Roughly 1.5 million volumes were moved during the summer of 1948 from Payne and Chancellor Green Halls, which until then had served as the University’s main library. The library building was expanded in 1971 and again in 1988 and currently has more than 70 miles (110 km) of bookshelves, making Firestone one of the largest open-stack libraries in existence. Though not the largest university library in the world, the library has more books per enrolled student than that of any other university in the United States.

You can read more about this project on our blog.