Lauinger Library, Georgetown University, Washington DC

One of the recent Luke Hughes library furniture projects has been the design and supply of the new reading tables and library lights for the Pierce Reading Room in the Lauinger Library at Georgetown University (in Washington DC).

The library is named after Joesph Mark Lauinger, a 1967 alumnus who died in Vietnam in 1970. The building was designed in a severe Brutalist style in the late Sixties by John Carl Warnecke, who intended it as a modern interpretation of Healy Hall, the neo-Medieval signature building of the university’s campus. Although it won architectural plaudits at the time of opening, it has since been described as the ugliest building in Georgetown, an accolade only surpassed in 2018, when it was designated one of the ugliest buildings in the United States.

The refurbishment of the Pierce Reading Room in 2025, being the first phase of renovation, was undertaken by Ikon 5 Architects with a team led by Joe Tattoni. The project has now revealed many of the building’s qualities, not least the magnificent views over the Potomac river. The Reading Room now include a new Digital Lab with a large format wall for interactive learning and special events and has proved outstandingly popular with the students.

Luke Hughes was commissioned to design and make the readers’ tables and library lights (in stainless steel, linoleum and walnut), incorporating all the modern requirements of power and data that are now considered essential in modern library environments.

There is more from the perspective of Beth Marhanka, the head librarian, here:

For more details about this and any other projects or products, please contact us.