Bass Library

Located underneath Yale University's Cross Campus, it was completed in 1971 in a minimalist-functionalist style designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes.

[1] Though originally proposed to house the library's East Asian collection and Yale memorabilia, librarians decided instead to utilize the new space to improve access to frequently-used materials and reserve books.

To allow for sufficient light underground, architect Edward Larrabee Barnes proposed to sink sixteen skylights into the Cross Campus lawn.

[12] In 2019, Yale announced plans to expand study areas by transferring approximately 100,000 rarely used or duplicate titles to the adjacent Sterling Memorial Library.

[2][16] Kent Bloomer, a Yale School of Architecture professor, designed ornament for the Cross Campus entrances, which references Gothic elements of Sterling Memorial Library.

Sterling Memorial Library (left), Anne T. & Robert M. Bass Library (right), Cross Campus, Yale University, downtown New Haven, Connecticut