Beyer Blinder Belle Architects

Reimagining the New York Public Library’s Midtown Campus includes transformation of the system’s largest circulating branch into The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), a state-of-the-art facility with expanded services and dramatic public spaces.

This largest public-private rehabilitation in NYPL’s history creates a lending library that will serve as both a model and catalyst for a rejuvenated library system. The transformed library, occupying a 1914 building originally designed for the Arnold Constable department store, adds 35 percent more public space and hundreds more seats. The renovation adds a floor to the roof, housing new programs and event space, as well as a wraparound public terrace. The circulating collection, with more than 1.7 million visits a year, is housed in “The Long Room,” offering five floors of browsable book stacks, and two floors of meeting and consultation rooms. A dedicated business library and an adult learning center each occupy a full floor. A floor is also dedicated to a children’s library and a separate library for teens. More than 11,000 SF of multipurpose space will be used for classes, events, one-on-one consultations, seminars, and a host of other programs, maximizing availability and diversity of public offerings. BBB is working in collaboration with Mecanoo on the Midtown Campus Renovation, which includes renovation of the historic and iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building across Fifth Avenue.