Yesterday I had lunch at the Asian Art Museum with its outgoing director, Jay Xu, who has one month remaining on his 17-year tenure. I worked at the museum ten years ago, and the meeting brought back memories — not just of that time but of the building’s former life as home to the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library.

Brightly lit decorative ceiling of the Great Hall
A portion of the ceiling of the Great Hall, with its chandelier at center.

A couple of snaps of ceilings convey something of my feelings. Like many beaux arts buildings, the library/museum features a grand central staircase leading to a great hall. The museum has branded this Samsung Hall, and it serves for meetings and presentations. But I can’t help thinking of it as the card catalogue room, where I thumbed through drawers of library book cards, all scrawled with users’ comments, respectful and otherwise. When I was a patron there, the library staff, it must be said, were disrespectful of the fine old building, and the room was covered in graffiti, with rips and tears across the walls. In addition, generations of San Franciscans had smoked there, and layers of soot and grime covered everything. As my snap of the room’s ceiling and its central chandelier shows, the museum must be commended for doing a wonderful restoration of the historical features. Really beautifully done!

A portion of the South Asian galleries, with a row of sculptures, with an ornate overhead painted ceiling
Part of the South Asian galleries, with their ornate painting ceiling.

I have more complex feelings about the second ceiling shown here. It too has been wonderfully restored, and again the museum must be commended. The beautiful, intricately painted ceiling makes a compelling backdrop — can a ceiling be a backdrop? — to the South Asian art galleries.

But the ceiling is a bit in-your-face, because it was never meant to be viewed from so close. It was part of an expansive library reading room. That room was so tall that architect Gae Aulenti, who did the repurposing of the building, was able to squeeze an entire extra floor in. It’s easy to see why this was done. It’s functional and necessary for showing even the small portion of the museum’s collection that is on display to the public. But, oh! that sunlit reading room was pleasant, with its high ceiling and its great tall windows, which are now sadly covered over. I spent many pleasant hours in that room. It is is gone forever, and I miss it.

Large statue in front of museum walls
The museum’s origins as a public library are memorialized by this statue of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who is credited with creating the first systematically collected and cataloged library in ancient West Asia. Behind the statue are the windows, now covered, mentioned above.