Author: Tatiana Craine

The Library’s plan to upgrade, renovate, and add public space to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building continues in 2021, with physical work on critical infrastructure upgrades beginning in late 2020. Specifically, the Library is currently working on upgrades to the building’s cooling tower and HVAC system, as well as improvements to building circulation and flow with the addition of a new elevator and staircase.

Please note: the Schwarzman Building is currently closed to the public to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, and while staff is on-site to manage scan-and-deliver, virtual consultations, and other remote services, the current work will have minimal impact on public service at this time.

The infrastructure improvements are part of the project’s Phase II, which has been ongoing since 2017 and included the 2019 opening of the second-floor Center for Research in the Humanities, an 8,000-square-foot space dedicated to quiet research, work with the Library’s research collections, temporary displays, and collections-related programming. Phase II is currently scheduled to conclude in 2023, and in addition to the infrastructure upgrades will include a new entrance and public plaza on the 40th Street side of the building and a new permanent but rotating exhibition of NYPL research collection treasures in the Library’s upgraded Gottesman Hall.

On July 13, New Yorkers got their first glimpse of The New York Public Library’s totally-renovated central circulating branch The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), as a portion of the branch’s first floor opened for limited grab-and-go service. 

The transformed branch on 40th Street and Fifth Avenue—the Library’s largest circulating branch formerly known as Mid-Manhattan Library and now named for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation because of its generous support—was originally scheduled to open in full to the public on May 15, 2020, but that grand opening is delayed indefinitely as New York City copes with COVID-19. 

The new library will eventually offer the public hundreds of thousands of books, spaces for programs and classes, the only free, public rooftop space in the City, new, expansive areas dedicated to children and teens, the Pasculano Learning Center offering career services, English language and literacy classes, media and technology training, and a multimedia studio, and a world-class Business Center featuring the staff, programs, and circulating collections formerly offered at the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) at 188 Madison Avenue.

The Library was designed by architect Francine Houben of Mecanoo with Beyer Blinder Belle, and funded by the City and with a generous gift from The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) in line with SNF’s long standing and extensive commitment to the NYPL and libraries worldwide.