The New York Public Library’s new plan for the renovation of its landmark Fifth Avenue building envisions a high-ceilinged reading room with up to six levels of century-old book stacks preserved at each end, according to a Manhattan architect and other people who have seen the plans.
Still under development, the revised design represents a shift by the library in response to outcry over schematics it released in December that called for demolishing the building’s seven-level book-stack structure, which provides structural support for its Rose Main Reading Room.
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The library declined to provide a rendering of the new design, which it plans to reveal next year. Anthony Marx, its president and CEO, has said that the design would preserve “a significant portion” of the stacks to hold the new circulating library’s books.
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People who saw the plans offered varying estimates of how much of the stacks appear to be retained. The library has said that the reused ones would hold some 400,000 books comprising the new circulating library’s collection, compared with the 3 million research volumes the stacks previously held, but declined to specify the percentage of stacks that would be retained.
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See Also: Delay in Release of New York Public Library Revised Renovation Plan (October 2013)
See Also: New York Public Library Rethinks Design (Central Library Plan) (August 2013)
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