New York Public Library Reveals Revised Rennovation Plan

From The NY Times:

The New York Public Library’s revised renovation plan — to upgrade the Mid-Manhattan Library and create more public space in its flagship Fifth Avenue building — is expected to cost about $300 million, according to library officials who outlined new details of the project in interviews.

The anticipated budget matches what the library had originally suggested its previous plan — to insert a circulating branch at its main library at 42nd Street — might cost.

But officials, for the first time, revealed that the original plan, mostly scrapped last month in large part because of questions about the price tag, would actually have cost more than $500 million, according to independent estimates they commissioned last June.

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At the Schwarzman building, the renovation will convert unused historic rooms and offices into public spaces — creating an “education corridor” on the ground floor, for example, that will hold teacher areas and libraries for children and teenagers.

In keeping with the original plan, the Schwarzman building will absorb and expand the operations of the current Science, Industry and Business Library in the former B. Altman building, on Madison Avenue at 34th Street, which will be sold or leased.

Read the Complete Article (987 Words)

See Also: Library’s New Renovation Plan Pegged at $300 Million (via WSJ)

Filed under: Interviews, Libraries, News, Public Libraries