The Connecting Corridor Between the Library and the Faculty Research Building

Photo: 1995. The North New Building (now the North Building), completed the previous year, is visible in the background.

Passing between the Old University Library and the First Faculty Research Building and descending gently down the hill leads to the Mita North Gate. Half a century ago, only "Yamashoku" and two or three other two-story wooden buildings stood there; the sky was wide open, and one could see the base of Tokyo Tower from the top of the slope. However, when the new seven-story research building (with two basement levels) was erected in late 1969, the path suddenly became cramped. The sense of congestion increased further when a suspicious and precarious-looking elevated corridor was hastily installed to connect the third floor of the research building with the library stacks. Nevertheless, that corridor was a key facility for the Mita Media Center, which was established the following year through the organizational integration of the library and the faculty research libraries. First, dissatisfaction grew among faculty members of the Faculties of Law, Business and Commerce, and Economics, who had offices on the upper floors of the research building. They complained that access to the library stacks was terrible. Similar problems were predicted for the operations of the Media Center, which was to use one-third of the space in the research building closest to the library. Because all back-office operations were moved to the research building facilities, and service departments were split between the library side and the research building side (specializing in faculty use), the functions became divided.

Therefore, as a desperate measure by the Facilities Department, construction of a "connecting corridor" linking the second floor of the Library's Third Stacks (the third floor in terms of building structure) and the third floor of the research building—which was not in the original construction plan—was added. The corridor was approximately 14 meters long and 1.8 meters wide. From the outside, it appeared straight and parallel, but from the research building side, it had a slight right dogleg and was sloped. Due to this shape, one had to lean forward when moving toward the library and lean backward when going the other way. Perhaps to ensure structural strength, not a single window was installed, giving it a gloomy atmosphere. In library operations, it was essential to load large quantities of materials onto book trucks and move between the two facilities, and this somewhat thrilling task was repeated daily.

The elevated corridor in question existed until around the summer of 2018, but it was removed during the seismic retrofitting of the Old University Library and has now become a piece of local lore.

(Masatoshi Shibukawa, former Director of the Administrative Office, Keio University Research and Education Information Center)