The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Art Collection
Temple University

Charles L. Blockson donated his collection of more than 30,000 books and 500,000 prints, photographs, and other artifacts related to African Americans to Temple University. The University identified a new prominent location for the collection with space in historic Sullivan Hall. The public areas consist of a small lobby, exhibition space to display selected items from the collection, and a general reading room for research. The main circulation desk has ready access to reference stacks. The non-public portion contains the “stacks” for storage of the bulk of the collection, and includes a secure “vault”for rare archival materials. Administrative offices and workspace are also included for the staff. Kelly/Maiello was responsible for programming, planning, schematic design and design development for this new 3,100 SF space.