On October 21, 2019, The New York Public Library opened its new Center for Research in the Humanities, a nine-room space dedicated to quiet research, work with the Library’s research collections, temporary displays, and collections-related programming.
The over 8,000-square-foot Center—located on the second floor of the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and designed by architects Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle—has 56 seats exclusively for use by authors, scholars, students, and others engaged in extensive research, doubling the number of seats available in the building for that purpose. At opening, 30 scholars had already applied to work in the Center.
The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission today approved The New York Public Library’s proposal to improve flow, circulation, and visitor experience of its South Court space while preserving the building’s historical and architectural integrity. The work will create greater access to the Library’s collections and exhibitions, particularly the Treasures exhibition opening in Gottesman Hall next year.
In a May 16 letter to the research community, the Library’s Andrew W. Mellon Director William Kelly shared the following update on the institution’s growing research collection and plans for developing appropriate storage. The update includes an update on the status of the historic stacks inside the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
Collections Storage Plan
The New York Public Library, like every active research library, is constantly evaluating its long-term preservation and storage needs, both in terms of capacity and conditions. As part of this work, the Library undertook two recently concluded, interconnected studies. The first —conducted by architectural firms Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle—identified options for renovating the seven stories of 108-year-old shelves located in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The second evaluated the Library’s overall capacity needs (for a collection of over 40 million items and approximately 10 million research books).
Guided by these studies, the Library has framed a multi-pronged approach to increasing capacity and improving preservation conditions for our growing research collections.
The Historic Stacks
In their current state, the stacks can no longer serve as a repository for the Library’s collections; their environment is woefully inadequate to that task. The Time-Weighted Preservation Index, an industry-wide metric used to assess the quality of storage facilities, scores the stacks between 35 and 40, a level well below acceptable limits. By way of comparison, ReCAP, the Library’s state-of-the-art, off-site storage facility, registers 158.
The stacks study (see Executive Summary and full report) evaluated a variety of possible uses of the space. Based on current need and priority, the Library decided to only consider options that would make the space appropriate for research collections storage. The study concluded that the approximate cost of retrofitting the space—creating an appropriate environment for general and special collections—would be $200 million. A more modest option, one which would not accommodate special collections or offer flexibility for book storage, would, at current construction prices, cost $80 million dollars.
RECAP, the Library’s state-of-the-art storage facility.
Storage Capacity
The concomitant capacity study focused on accommodating at least 10 years of collections growth. To that end, the study identified two potential approaches. The first focused on the Milstein Research Stacks (the storage facility located under Bryant Park), suggesting the refurbishment of a dedicated special collections space, and the development of new protocols to enhance delivery efficiencies. We currently satisfy over 90% of research requests at the 42nd Street Library with materials held on site; these improvements will sustain our ability to meet that goal.
The second recommendation involved building new space at ReCAP, together with our partners Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton universities. The study noted that the preservation environment there is far superior to any on-site storage option; estimates suggest that the lifespan of books held there is four to five times longer than that of volumes maintained in conventional library circumstance. Further, ReCAP’s shared collection program provides NYPL patrons with direct access to the Columbia and Princeton collections held there. In the near future, Havard’s off-site collections will be available as well. Noted as well were ReCAP’s collaborative funding model, which significantly reduces construction and maintenance costs, and its scanning services and next-day delivery capability, which support researchers from all four of the Library’s research centers. The total cost of the Milstein renovation and the ReCAP expansion was estimated at $15 million.
Confronted with these alternatives, and attentive to the radical fluidity of publishing and storage technologies, the Library has decided to pursue the Milstein/ReCAP option. In doing so, it ensures a 10-year window of collection growth, optimizes storage environments, and protects the Library’s fiscal wellbeing. The stacks will be maintained as-is, providing future flexibility.
The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission today approved The New York Public Library’s proposal to add a new public entrance and plaza on the 40th Street side of its iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
The Commission approved the plan, which also included a much-needed wider loading dock, at a public hearing; work on the new entrance and plaza—named for Library Trustee and former Board Chair Marshall Rose—will begin in 2020, and is expected to be complete in 2021.
“This project to add a public entrance and terrace to 40th Street will better connect our historic building to the community, make the library’s collections, exhibitions and programs more welcoming and accessible to the public, improve circulation for people and books throughout the building, and increase outdoor public space,” said New York Public Library Chief Operating Officer Iris Weinshall at the hearing. “All of this work is crucial for better serving the public now and in the future. As such, we are excited about this project.”
The approved exterior changes—subject to the city’s landmarks law—are part of an overall master plan for the library that will increase public space, add exhibition spaces, and double the number of seats in the building specifically earmarked for quiet, long-term research and collections use. The plan—designed by architects Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle and paid for with private funds—will also add a new education center, where students will learn how to work with primary sources, and be taught the importance of research and fact-finding.
No current public reading rooms will be altered.
Design for the Marshall Rose Plaza which includes a new public entrance. Rendering by Mecanoo with Beyer Blinder Belle.
The New York Public Library will name a new public plaza at its iconic midtown location after Trustee and former Board Chair Marshall Rose, whose unwavering devotion and transformative vision has strengthened the Library, Bryant Park, and New York City.
At its annual meeting this week, the Library’s Board of Trustees approved a resolution to name the new 40th Street space “Marshall Rose Plaza,” honoring the significant foundational contributions that Rose has made to the institution. Rose, a tireless advocate for the Library over many decades, has played a key role in many critical capital projects, including the restoration of the Rose Main Reading Room, the development of the Milstein Research Stacks, and renovations to the Library for the Performing Arts, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and many neighborhood branches. This work has prepared the Library to best serve New Yorkers now and in the future.
Initial design for the Marshall Rose Plaza. Rendering by Mecanoo with Beyer Blinder Belle
Rose was also instrumental in the revitalization of Bryant Park; when taken together, the park and adjacent central library building create a beloved oasis in the heart of midtown.
The new plaza will be built along with a new public entrance on the 40th Street side of the Library’s iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The plaza project—privately funded with a lead gift from New York Public Library Trustee Richard Cohen—is expected to be complete in 2021.
“Marshall Rose has been a staunch advocate and innovative leader for the Library, reaffirming its essential role in the civic and educational life of New York City,” said New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx. “His devotion and dedication to the Library’s mission has made the institution—and the city— much stronger. It is appropriate, therefore, that as we once again prepare our iconic building for the future, we honor Marshall Rose and his visionary leadership.”
During the discussion around the naming at the Board meeting, Library Trustee Bobby Liberman added, “I would argue that [Marshall] has been NYPL’s greatest resource over the last 30 years and it is so appropriate that the Marshall Rose Plaza will honor this wonderful man.”
The Midtown Renovation project is moving forward as expected, with work beginning in July to expand and improve areas for research and quiet study at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The Library shared plans for the building in late 2017, and—based on feedback from the public and staff—prioritized the construction of a second floor “scholar center” that will include a mix of quiet study spaces, seminar spaces, and reading rooms for researchers. The work—which will also include upgrades to power, data, and lighting, the restoration of historical features, and the replacement of non-original elements with historically sympathetic materials—will begin on July 16.
Construction will take place in a central corridor on the second floor that currently includes staff spaces, a small number of public tables, and the Shoichi Noma Reading Room. The corridor will be closed until September 2019 to accommodate the construction, most of which will take place when the building is closed to the public.
During this temporary situation, the Library will add public seats to the Salomon Room, and Shoichi Noma researchers will be moved to the Wertheim Study.
The next phase, which will start next year, will bring improvements to all of the building’s public restrooms.
The Schwarzman Building’s new Lenox and Astor Room will provide space for research and programs.
The New York Public Library held two public meetings recently to present the master plan for the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Members of the project design team joined Library leadership in the Schwarzman Building’s Celeste Auditorium on the evenings of both November 20 and December 7 to present the plan, answer questions, and solicit feedback. The presentation can be viewed here.
Question and answer session at the SASB Master Plan Public Meeting
Plan calls for an increase in public space, the restoration of historic rooms, and a vastly improved visitor experience
NOVEMBER 15, 2017 – The New York Public Library has unveiled a Master Plan for its iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, one of the nation’s leading research libraries, which for over a century has stood as a symbol of open and free access to information and opportunity.
The $317 million plan for the historic Midtown building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street was shared at the Library’s Board of Trustees meeting this evening, and calls for an approximate 20% increase in public space for research, exhibitions, and educational programs.
The Master Plan was developed by Dutch architecture firm and experts on library design Mecanoo, led by Francine Houben, and Beyer Blinder Belle, a New York City-based firm known for its work on historic buildings, led by Elizabeth Leber. Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle are also leading the renovation of Mid-Manhattan Library, the Library’s largest circulating branch, located across Fifth Avenue. It is scheduled to reopen as the completely renovated Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library in early 2020.
The Library held two public meetings recently to present the master plan. Members of the project design team joined Library leadership in the Schwarzman Building’s Celeste Auditorium on the evenings of both November 20 and December 7 to present the plan, answer questions, and solicit feedback. The presentation can be viewed here.
Proposed updates to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building include a new entrance on 40th Street.
“For over a century, the Schwarzman Building has been a beacon of open access to information and a tireless preservationist of the world’s knowledge,” said New York Public Library President Tony Marx. “We have a responsibility to preserve its architectural wonder and its role as an important civic space, while also preparing it for the future, and another century of best serving the public. We believe this plan does just that.”
The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building Master Plan calls for future investment beginning in 2018 and continuing through 2021. Work will be done in two phases utilizing private funds. Specific elements include:
The transformation of former staff or storage spaces into public spaces for research, exhibitions, and educational programs
The transformation of long-underutilized, historic spaces for research and programs, including the new Lenox and Astor Room
A much-needed entrance on 40th Street with a plaza and new elevator bank to ease congestion throughout the building
An improved patron experience with new bathrooms and improved and modernized infrastructure, including a café and expanded shop
A new Center for Research and Learning that will introduce high school and university students to the array of collections and uses of the research library
A new permanent but rotating exhibition of NYPL treasures in the library’s Gottesman Hall
“We have developed a Master Plan that inherently adheres to the logic of a Beaux-Arts building,” said Mecanoo’s Francine Houben. “Our changes are both subtle and clever—to direct the flow for different user groups, for example, or to improve the quality and function of currently underused spaces.”
The Ground Floor of the Schwarzman Building will feature a Center for Reading and Learning.
These elements will prepare the library for the future while maintaining the building’s architectural integrity and complementing existing historic spaces such as the landmarked Rose Main Reading Room, the Maps, Periodicals, and Genealogy reading rooms, and Astor Hall.
“The Master Plan builds on the framework of this historic building and icon of New York City architecture,” said Beyer Blinder Belle’s Elizabeth Leber. “We are seeking to instill clarity and ease of circulation, and to support new uses and programs, while only enhancing its significant architectural features.”
Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle developed the Master Plan utilizing feedback from a variety of stakeholders, including a Trustees working group, staff, researchers and scholars, and members of the public via meetings, surveys, and smaller group discussions.
While the Master Plan does not include a definitive plan for the central stacks—seven floors of shelving built with the library in 1911—the Library also announced at the Board meeting that it has commissioned Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle to do a study examining possibilities for the 175,000-square-foot space.
The stacks are currently housing circulating books while Mid-Manhattan Library is closed for renovation, but are no longer fit to hold research materials as originally intended for preservation reasons: the space lets in natural light and does not meet acceptable standards for temperature, humidity, and fire safety.
The purpose of the study is to evaluate the current state of the stacks, and then—with input from a broad range of stakeholders, including staff, architects, and a group of non-Library advisors and planners—to identify a series of potential options for the space. Once those possible scenarios are identified, the public will have the opportunity to provide feedback.
William Kelly, the Library’s Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Research Libraries said, “The Library, through this study, plans to evaluate as many options as possible, with the primary goal of best serving the researchers who rely on this great institution now and in the future.”
All of this work is a continuation of a series of improvements and investments that the Library has already undertaken at the Schwarzman Building since 2006. Approximately $144 million in funding has been invested in the building for projects including:
The build-out of a second level of state-of-the-art underground storage for research materials (the Milstein Research Stacks), and the barcoding of all research materials that had been located in the central stacks
The restoration of two historic fountains on the plaza
The restoration of the Rose Main Reading Room ceilings and the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room ceiling and murals. Both of these spaces were landmarked this year.
A new, modern, more efficient book delivery system to bring materials from underground storage to the Rose Main Reading Room
Essential infrastructure improvements, such as a new fire alarm system
Building on its long-standing commitment to libraries worldwide and to The New York Public Library in particular, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation is partnering with The New York Public Library and the City of New York to support the complete renovation of the system’s largest circulating branch, Mid-Manhattan Library.
The Foundation’s transformational $55 million gift will support the creation of a modern, central branch to hold the Library’s largest circulating collection and offer countless programs for children, teens, and adults. In addition, it will help establish an inspiring “Midtown campus” that will reconnect the circulating library with the Library’s iconic research center, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, across Fifth Avenue, creating a free, open destination for thought and ideas in the center of Midtown. The gift also establishes an endowment for programming at the renovated library. The Mid-Manhattan Library renovation is expected to be complete in 2020, when the building will reopen as The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), a testament to the importance of this gift as well as the Foundation’s extensive previous support. In total, the Foundation has supported the Library with grants of over $60 million. The Library’s Board of Trustees Executive Committee approved the renaming at a recent meeting, and it was announced at the full Board of Trustees meeting this evening.
The gift is the second largest individual gift in the history of the Library, and contributed to a record year of private fundraising: in Fiscal Year 2017, the Library raised $133.38 million in new major gift commitments, more than in any other year in its history.
“This gift is a culmination of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s long-standing and unwavering commitment to libraries around the globe,” said Library President Tony Marx. “We are so appreciative of the Foundation’s generosity, vision, and support as we transform our largest central branch into the library New Yorkers deserve and have never had. The project—also supported by our partners in New York City government—will allow for more use and a better flow of ideas and learning back and forth across Fifth Avenue.”
“With over 21 years of global grant-making history, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation has committed significant resources towards supporting public institutions across each of its four main programmatic areas. Public libraries are paradigmatic public institutions offering communities an array of critical services that extend far beyond the lending of books. The varied roles of public libraries place them, more than ever before, at the heart of our civic societies, at a time when many had been predicting their demise,” said Andreas Dracopoulos, Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. “We are very proud of this new partnership with NYPL, which continues a long and impactful collaboration. Our shared vision is that this landmark gift will not only transform one of the city’s most democratic and accessible spaces, Mid-Manhattan’s central circulating branch, but will also create a hub of knowledge, creativity, and innovation in the center of one of the world’s greatest cities.”
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world’s leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. The SNF has a long-established relationship with The New York Public Library, supporting educational programs and exhibitions that make the work and collections of the Library more accessible to all. In that vein, the SNF is currently working closely with NYPL and the Revson Foundation on a program to make one-day passes to cultural institutions available for checkout in branches across all three New York City library systems.
The SNF has also shown unwavering commitment to libraries around the world, supporting, among other projects, the construction of the new facilities for the National Library of Greece at The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
While Mid-Manhattan Library is closed for a much-needed renovation, The New York Public Library is accommodating patrons by opening a temporary circulating space across Fifth Avenue on the ground floor of its historic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
The new space—called Mid-Manhattan at 42nd Street—opened today and is accessible to patrons via the 42nd Street entrance of the Schwarzman Building. The space holds Mid-Manhattan’s circulating collections and offers computers, programming spaces, and tables for quiet study. Mid-Manhattan holds can be sent to this location for pick-up, patrons can return books here, and the space can be used as a cooling center.
Hours for the new space are:
Monday, Thursday: 8 AM–8 PM
Tuesday, Wednesday: 8 AM–9 PM
Friday: 8 AM–6 PM
Saturday: 10 AM–6 PM
Sunday: 10 AM–5 PM
Mid-Manhattan Library at 42nd Street
The Space
To create Mid-Manhattan at 42nd Street, The New York Public Library transformed a formerly non-public space used for staff offices and storage into a welcoming, functional circulating library. The space is divided into four rooms with dedicated areas for programming, computers, browsable collections, seating, and a teen zone. In building the new space, the Library retained several historic elements, including built-in shelving and seating.
How To Access Materials
All of Mid-Manhattan’s circulating collections have moved to Mid-Manhattan at 42nd Street and are available for checkout (with the exception of the Picture Collection, which has moved to Room 100 on the first floor of the Schwarzman Building). Mid-Manhattan’s most current and frequently used books are available for browsing, while the rest of the collection is held in a non-public area and is available for quick retrieval by staff. Materials can be requested in advance at nypl.org or at various service points throughout the interim space. After a short wait, large electronic boards throughout the space alert patrons when their books or other materials have arrived. There are four kiosks for virtual browsing and reading recommendations so that patrons can still independently explore the library’s collection. Staff are readily available to help patrons navigate the process and to answer questions.
The Renovation
Mid-Manhattan Library closed on August 1 for a long-awaited renovation. The New York Public Library’s central circulating library opened in the 1970s in a space designed to be a department store and is in serious need of upgrades and improvements. The renovated library will have a dramatic multistory wall of bookshelves; an employment skills center with job-search help; a full floor dedicated to a business library; a full floor dedicated to separate libraries for children and teens; a free public roof terrace; and hundreds more seats than the current branch.
While the building is temporarily closed, the Library has expanded hours and added services at several nearby Midtown locations, in addition to the new interim space.
The renovated branch is expected to open in early 2020.
42nd Street Entrance of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
