Library Architecture: “A New Queens Building That Can’t Be Overlooked: A Library”

From The New York Times:

Neighborhood libraries are not typically foreground buildings. It is telling that the latest addition to the New York Public Library system occupies the basement of a 50-story condominium tower in Manhattan in which one apartment sold for more than $23 million.

But the $38 million Hunters Point library, designed by Steven Holl Architects, already occupies the foreground, even though it is at least a year from opening.

[Clip]

“A public building has to have a presence, has to be a beacon,” Mr. Holl said Monday, as he led a hard-hat tour through the great concrete shell, which is not just a facade but a load-bearing structure. (There is only one interior column.) The cutouts are angled and situated to take advantage of unobstructed views of Manhattan.

Read the Complete Article, View Images

Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries