Architectural Facts

The building sits on a concrete base 42-inches thick, has a steel-reinforced concrete infrastructure, and is axially arranged around a central core.
The building has 13 stories (12 floors plus the Ground level in the basement).
There are four elevators, or the more adventurous can climb the building's 312 stairs from Ground Floor to Twelfth Floor.
The building has approximately 170,000 square feet of interior space and, as originally constructed, rose 184 feet above grade. Subsequent renovations and a roof remodel have made the building, as it currently stands, over 200 feet tall, ensuring it retains its title of the "Tallest Academic Building in Alabama."
The Library was originally clad in white marble mined in Sylacauga, Alabama (known as "Sylacauga White" or "Alabama White"), which also graces some of the nation's greatest monuments, such as the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The marble panels were 7/8s of an inch thick, which made them particularly susceptible to the extremes of Alabama weather -- thermal cycling and temperature differentials between the exposed face and the interior face of the panels eventually caused them to separate as much as 8 inches from their substructure. The result: the entire building had to be reclad.
Work began in 2001 to reclad the Library in granite ("Radiant Red") quarried and shipped in from Texas. Approximately 67,000 square feet of granite was needed, and the cost of recladding surpassed the original cost of the building, at approximately $5.5 million. At the same time, the Library's Twelfth Floor and penthouse exterior was remodeled to add a roof to its balcony in an attempt to stop water intrusion. The exterior remodel was completed and the building rededicated in October 2002.