BY JACKSON CHEN | The New York Public Library’s Mid-Manhattan branch is preparing to undergo a $200 million renovation involving roughly two years of construction that aims to yield a state-of-the-art educational facility.
The library, at the corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue – diagonally across from the system’s grand main branch, now known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, one block north – is the NYPL system’s largest circulating branch, with about two million items going out every year and roughly 1.7 million annual visits. More than four decades after its opening in the 1970s, the branch is due for much-needed interior renovations as well as upgrades in the services provided.
“Having been here for some time, I really understand the needs for a new library,” Caryl Soriano, the branch’s chief librarian, said. “We’re currently challenged by the spaces we have now. We have much more demand than we have space available.”
The project calls for a revamping of the library’s interiors into a contemporary light-filled space with the second, third, and fourth floors dedicated to general collections and reading and study spaces. Below grade, the plans show a children’s library and a teens’ library, separate from each other. The library will also have an adult learning center on the fifth floor and a business library on the sixth.
The Mid-Manhattan Library’s rooftop will also be remodeled to create outdoor terraces for the public to enjoy the sights of the crowded nearby cityscape.
“Us having a rooftop terrace in Midtown that’s going to be free and open to the public is another exciting adventure I look forward to,” Soriano said. “Not just for myself and the community, but for my staff who really want to provide a really rich and intensive array of programs and opportunities.”
Another key feature of the project, dubbed the Long Room, will host a majority of the library’s collection in five floors of book stacks for open browsing — compacted within three of the building’s floors — and two meeting room spaces.
According to the plans, the new building design will allow for 35 percent more public space and capacity for housing 400,000 books and materials.
The project’s design team is being led by Elizabeth Leber from Beyer Blinder Belle, a Lower Manhattan architecture firm, and Francine Houben from Mecanoo, a Dutch architectural firm.
To fund this massive project, the city is contributing more than $150 million while the remaining $50 million was secured through private funds, according to the NYPL’s vice president for the Office of Capital Planning and Construction, Risa Honig.
“We always felt that this building could use quite a bit of an overhaul and renovation,” Honig said. “It needed work, being the largest circulating library in our city and in our system. We felt it was time to really give it that upgrade that it so desperately needs.”
To facilitate the long construction period, the Mid-Manhattan Library will be using nearby NYPL locations to continue offering its services during its downtime, according to Soriano. The majority of the library’s primary services — like circulation and computers — will be carried out at the iconic Schwarzman Building one block north.
Soriano added that community programs like IDNYC, which offers free identification cards to all New Yorkers, will be temporarily moved to the Grand Central Library at 135 East 46th Street, while technology offerings will be relocated to the Science, Industry and Business Library at 188 Madison Avenue at 34th Street. The recently opened 53rd Street Library at 18 West 53rd Street will also bear some of the brunt of the Mid-Manhattan branch’s closing during the several years of construction.
The NYPL is currently working on the transitional phase for the project, according to architect Leber, and expects to vacate the building by the fall in order to start construction. The refurbished Mid-Manhattan Library is expected to be open for business again in late 2019 or early 2020.
