Russell King: "Designing 'the Bird': An Architect's Tale"

Syracuse University Library Associates presented architect Russell King on October 16, 2008 in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons in E.S. Bird Library. In a lecture entitled "Designing ‘the Bird’: An Architect’s Tale”, King talks about designing Bird Library expounding on the relationship his family's firm, King & King Architects, has had with Syracuse University dating back to the late 1800s. Russell King recalls that, sometime in 1957, Chancellor William Pearson Tolley asked King and King, Architects, to present a design for a new library building. The Chancellor had a potential donor that he dubbed “Mrs. Carnegie.” Though she never appeared, Russ and his team, “at first with no program of requirements, no site, no budget—nothing to go on,” began the process that resulted in the 1972 opening of the Ernest Stevenson Bird Library. King described that process and set it in the context of King and King’s long association with Syracuse University, going back to the late 1880s when the firm’s founder, Archimedes Russell, built the von Ranke Library (now the Tolley Building). After graduating in 1952 from Syracuse University, Russell King spent four years as a naval officer before returning to the family firm as the third generation of Kings. In 1959, he was made a partner; in 1965, a managing partner, and in 1975, chief executive officer. He was partner-in-charge of many projects that King and King undertook for health care facilities, corporations, and institutions of higher learning, most notably Syracuse University. In addition to Bird Library, they built H. B. Crouse Hall, the Biological Research Building, the Physics Building, the Belfer Audio Archive, the Heroy Geology Laboratory, and Link Hall. King retired from the firm in 1992 and now carries the title of consulting partner.

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