Editing Furness Style (section)

== Fisher Fine Arts Library ==

The Fisher Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania (1888-91) demonstrates Furness's mature style applied to academic purposes. The building's massive red brick and terra cotta facades present an asymmetrical composition dominated by a great arched entrance and a soaring chimney-like tower that serves as bookstack ventilator. The reading room, with its exposed iron structure, brick walls, and overhead lighting, creates an atmosphere of serious study appropriate to scholarly function. Furness's willingness to express structure and mechanical systems openly anticipates twentieth-century approaches to honest building design.<ref name="thomas"/>

The library has been called an early example of functionalist architecture, with its forms following from programmatic requirements rather than stylistic preconceptions. The tower houses bookstacks in a manner that allows efficient retrieval while expressing this function externally. The reading room's iron columns and exposed structure acknowledge rather than conceal construction. Yet Furness remains a Victorian, decorating his functional forms with ornament that transforms utilitarian elements into objects of visual interest. This combination of functionalism and decoration marks Furness as a transitional figure, pointing toward modernism while remaining rooted in his era.<ref name="lewis"/>