University of Texas at Dallas leaders and friends celebrated the opening of the Brettell Reading Room at the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum on Sept. 4. The reading room is the first space to be completed in Phase 1 of the University’s new cultural district. The Brettell Reading Room honors the late Dr. Richard Brettell, a longtime professor of art and aesthetic studies at UT Dallas whose vision for enhancing the arts on campus first inspired the O’Donnell Athenaeum project. If you knew Rick, you would see how this room uniquely represents him.”The Brettell Reading Room contains more than 2,500 books from Brettell’s personal collection, spanning disciplines from museum studies and art theory to philosophy and religion. We’re all excited to see it come to fruition.”The construction of the Brettell Reading Room was made possible by generous gifts from Brettell’s family, friends and former colleagues totaling more than $567,900.