New York Public Library’s Flagship Building Designs Released

UPDATED 11:45 a.m.: Additional Details of What NYPL is Planning (via NYPL News Release)

New Animated Fly-Through Video of NYPL Central Library Plan

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As the NY Times points out,

…something crucial has been missing from this debate [about the renovation]: what the transformed library will actually look like. On Wednesday, that will become clear when the library unveils the design by the British architect Norman Foster. Using space at the back of the building now occupied by seven floors of stacks, Mr. Foster has essentially created a major new contemporary library within Carrère & Hastings’s neo-Classical one.

From the NY Daily News:

On Wednesday, Public Library President Tony Marx will present details of a highly contested plan to turn the august central branch from a closed-off scholarly monastery into a true public library with light-filled reading areas, views of Bryant Park and even the Internet.
“People need the view,” Marx said. “And they need a better library.”
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The redesign will double the amount of public space in the library: Currently, only 30% of the building is open to the public, but that will rise to 70% once 3 million books are relocated to new stacks under Bryant Park.
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The library will also extend its hours until 11 p.m. on most nights, and will include a permanent exhibition of what Marx calls “library treasures.”

Read the Complete Article & View Several Artist Renderings

Additional Coverage

See Also: After Criticism, Public Library Offers Peek at Renovation Plans (via NY Times)
See Also: N.Y. Public Library, Norman Foster Evict a Million Books (via Bloomberg)
See Also: First look at Foster’s $250 million NY library scheme (via Architectural Journal)
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See Also: All the Panic Over the New York Public Library’s Renovation Plan Is Overwrought (via NY Magazine)
See Also: Wall St. Journal Architecture Critic Blasts NYPL Renovation Plan (December 4, 2012)

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