Project Summary

Contemporary in style and rising nine stories in clean, simple lines, Millikan Memorial Library became the “tallest building on [the CalTech] campus.” It was also ahead of its time by providing air conditioning and high speed elevators! Designed in 1965 and constructed in 1967, the building was funded by Seeley G. Mudd, a member of the CalTech Board of Trustees. The architectural character of the surrounding buildings reflected in the culminating arches in the highest story and the ground floor arcades which provide entrance on both sides of the north-south axis. A one-story rotunda provides conference quarters and houses memorabilia and papers of Dr. Robert A. Millikan, for whom the library is named, a renowned physicist and chief adminis-trative officer of CalTech from 1921 to 1946.