Legal Research Building
- Built in 1931
- Money donated by William W. Cook
- One of four buildings comprising Law Quadrangle
- Probably the largest building in the world devoted exclusively to a law library
- Architects: York and Sawyer
- Writings of great jurists, as well as from Cook’s will, are carved over the entrance
- Seals of various states are carved on its towers and ends; seals of American and European universities decorate the stained glass windows.
[View more images of the Legal Research Building]
William W. Cook ('80, '82l) of New York City donated the funds necessary for The Legal Research Building, as well as for the other three buildings (the Lawyers Club, the John P. Cook Dormitory, and Hutchins Hall) that form the Law Quadrangle. Mr. Cook, along with Dean Bates of the Law School and President Hutchins formulated the plans for the Quadrangle and York and Sawyer were chosen as the architects for the project.
The Legal Research Building was completed in 1931. It accommodates 500 readers in the main study room, contains carrels in the stacks, and has approximately 80 studies for members of the faculty, visiting lawyers and judges, and other researchers. It is probably the largest building in the world devoted exclusively to a law library.
Source: The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey; Walter A. Donnelly, Wilfred B. Shaw, and Ruth W. Gjelsness, editors; Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 1958.