Abstract
The Olin Library in St. Louis was an important design competition for the United States in the 1950's, the rear of America's modern architecture. The participants of this competition were a variety of representative architects and groups of its time. With the library's functional rationality, the Olin Library competition was legible of the aspects of modern architectural flow. The competition required two demands. The first demand was absolute importance in character definition of place, which was to satisfy the site conditions approached from campus design. Secondly was related to interpretation of morphological symbolism in an architectural matter. The experiments of American modern architecture started to change its ideal goal gradually ; accommodating the altering public's code, at the same time, maintaining the original modern value was the reason to changing the ideal goal. As a turning point, the Olin Library should be understood as an important work, which divulged the value change of architectural interpretation.