Here’s How To Visit The Suzzallo Library In Seattle

All your questions about The Suzzallo Library, answered.

The rain came in streaks, darkening walls and adding shadows without light. The Oxford Coat of Arms, wet and stone, deepened grey until its crowns looked rimmed in kohl and its text gleamed like ink: Dominus illuminatio mea.

Below, the library’s main doors opened. Most of the students, backpacks besting their shoulders, sauntered past the coat of arms and three carved figures (embodiers of Mastery, Inspiration, and Thought) and plunged into an adjoining Starbucks for coffee. But a few wound up the Grand Staircase and clocked the reading room, a quiet study area with the breadth of a cathedral: oak desks stretched out like pews, narrow panes of glass stained with watermarks, a 65-foot ceiling high above a suspension of chandeliers.

About Suzzallo Library

The Suzzallo Library, a collegiate gothic building, stands on the University of Washington (Seattle) campus within a brick plaza, slick with rain and nicknamed the Red Square. In 1923, the central plaza was ragged grass, and a skeleton of a library was erected atop [source]. Henry Suzzallo held the position of University President then. So when the library opened in 1926, it carried his name.

Wings have been added. The (modern) Allen Library adjoins. And the Suzzallo Library is still intensely beautiful, stamped with details that feel straight out of a novel (if you love fantasy books or dark academia, you’ll love this library).

Can Anyone Visit The Suzzallo Library?

The Suzzallo Library is open to the public and free to visit. You don’t have to be a student to enter. Anyone is welcome!

How Do You Get To The Suzzallo Library?

If you’re driving in, park at one of the self-serve visitor parking spots in the Central Plaza Garage between levels C2 and C4. Parking (pay-by-phone) starts at $5 per hour (the library takes about an hour to see). Once parked, head to C3. You’ll glimpse an arrowed sign that reads “Suzzallo & Allen Libraries” (follow the arrow to get to the library).

If you’re utilizing Seattle’s light rail, take the 1 Line to University of Washington Station. From there, the Suzzallo Library is a brisk fifteen-minute walk away (here’s a map).

When Can You Visit The Suzzallo Public Library?

Mondays through Thursdays, you can step into the Suzzallo Library anytime between 8 AM and 8 PM. The library shuts its doors early on Friday (5 PM), closes on Saturdays, and opens late on Sundays (1 PM).

Since the Suzzallo Library is part of University of Washington, it closes for campus events (you can check current hours here) and academic holidays and breaks too (you can check the current academic calendar here).

What To Expect At Suzzallo Library

• Eighteen terracotta statues of poets, philosophers, and inventors decorate the exterior.
• Coats of arms, from Oxford to Yale, press into the stone façade.
• Names of European printers perch above the library’s main doors.
• A stairwell holds the grandeur of a movie set.
• A silent reading room with a gothic atmosphere.

Suzzallo Library Reading Room

If you’re pressed for time, head straight for the Grand Staircase. Windowlight dapples steps that gently curve towards a rotunda. The climb up is short and echoey; in the hall, sound bucks to a stop.

One of the world’s largest books is encased outside the reading room – 7 feet by 5 feet, over a hundred pounds, ink-heavy with canvas-sized photographs of Bhutan.  

The reading room is just past, and it’s a sight to see—an altar to learning, two globes pinned on each end. Constellations, cast in metal, orbit the hand-painted worlds. Spin around, and you’ll notice over two dozen designs (pulled from Les Filigranes, a historical dictionary of Medieval and Renaissance paper marks) tattooing narrow, stained-glass windows.

Carvings of plants, long local to Washington state, crest bookcases, squat and oak. The shelves are full, and the books are weathered. An early aughts coffee table copy of Japanese Modern sits next to a 1960s copy of The Birth of Europe. Kremlin Rising lies beside an illustrated guide to Creative Bookbinding.

Hard desks and chairs occupy much of the reading room’s floor. Graduate students study here quietly, with focused breaths (Suzzallo is the kind of library where silence is the loudest sound). Warm light, from brass lamps and two rows of chandeliers, pools on their notes.

And a reminder, cloaked in cursive, is etched into a far wall: Books Are To Be Read With Imagination.

Did you find this Suzzallo Library travel guide helpful? What was your experience visiting Suzzallo Library like? Let us know in the comments below!