The reading room on floors two and three is connected by a small atrium. Each floor has a large reading room in the center with desks, group study rooms, lockers and shelved reference works. The building has five floors above ground and two basements. Henry Moore's bronze sculpture Nuclear Energy commemorates the event. The Regenstein Library was constructed on the former site of Alonzo Stagg Field where the first controlled, self-sustaining, nuclear chain reaction took place on December 2, 1942.
Today, the "Reg" is the flagship institution of The University of Chicago Library system, which is considered among the top five in the world for breadth and depth of material, and receives high marks from users ( The Princeton Review placed it in the top nine for college students). The University of Chicago Graduate Library School was housed in the Joseph Regenstein Library until its closure. University tour guides often remark on the resemblance between each of the elements of the building's facade and the fore edge of a book. It is built out of grooved limestone, which, from a distance, resembles concrete. The building was designed by the Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill led by senior architect Walter Netsch. In 1968, the university broke ground and, in 1970, the library opened at the final cost of $20,750,000. In 1965, the Joseph Regenstein Foundation gave $10 million to the University for construction of the library. The library stands on the former grounds of Stagg Field.
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