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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 February 2022
In this article David Wills, the Librarian of the Squire Law Library, offers a brief description of the extraordinary range of architecture at the University of Cambridge with particular reference to the David Williams Building, designed by the world-renowned architects Foster + Partners. He suggests that, in the context of the Squire Law Library, which occupies the top three floors of the David Williams Building, the building has truly come of age; he looks at some of the features and challenges of its modern design; and notes that the building looks set to play a major part in the education and research activity of legal scholars and university students into the distant future. This article is a personal reflection based on the author's experience of using and working in the building for some 26 years since it was constructed and opened in the mid-1990s.
The sub-title to this article was inspired by the author's personal interest in jazz and the American jazz pianist Chick Corea whose band ‘Return to Forever’ was formed in 1971. Chick Corea died on 9 February 2021.
3 The building was named after Professor Sir David Williams (1930–2009). Professor Sir David Williams, QC, LLD had a distinguished career in the law, in public service, in the University of Cambridge and in the Faculty of Law. He was an undergraduate, then a Fellow, of Emmanuel College; President of Wolfson College; Chair of the Faculty of Law; Rouse Ball Professor of English Law; and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge for two terms between 1989 and 1996.
6 Baker, J.H., 750 Years of Law at Cambridge: a Brief History of the Faculty of Law, to Commemorate the Opening of the New Building (Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, 1996)Google Scholar.
7 ibid.
8 John Olley, ‘C.R.Cockerell's Cambridge Library’ (8 February 1989) The Architects’ Journal, 34–63.
37 Ronald Green, ‘Neville Conder (1922–2003)’ 2003 The Architects’ Journal available at: https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/neville-conder-1922-2003.
58 The main construction work took place between 1993 and 1995.
60 David Jenkins, Norman Foster: Works 3 (Prestel, 2007), 282.
61 Alastair Best, ‘Legal Precedent’ (March, 1996) The Architectural Review 36/3-39/3.
62 ibid, 285.
63 ibid.
64 ibid, 282.
65 Pawley, Martin, Norman Foster: a Global Architecture (Thames & Hudson, 1999), 191–195Google Scholar.
66 Alastair Best, ‘Legal Precedent’ (March, 1996) The Architectural Review 39/3.
67 David Jenkins, Norman Foster: Works 3 (Prestel, 2007), 291.
68 Interview with Lesley Dingle for the Eminent Scholars Archive (ESA) at the Squire Law Library: https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent-scholars-archiveprofessor-john-rason-spencer/extended-biography-professor-john-rason-spencer.
69 A.D.A. Edita Tokyo, ‘Spotlight on Norman Foster’ (1999) GA (Global Architecture) Extra and referred to in David Jenkins, Norman Foster: Works 3 (Prestel, 2007), 289.
70 Yemi Stowell, ‘Library Crawl: a Saturday on the Sidgwick Site’ (08 April 2015) The Cambridge Student..
71 Sam Rhodes, Library Crawl Redux: What Makes the Perfect Library? (2 April 2015) TCS. https://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/library-crawl-redux-what-makes-the-perfect-library/.
72 Spencer de Grey, (27 July 1995) The Architects’ Journal, 32.
73 Michael Brawne, Library Builders (Academy Editions, 1997), 71.
74 Clare Dyer and Patrick Wintour, ‘Woolf Leads Judges’ Attack on Ministers’ (4 March 2004) Guardian, 1.
