Were any librarians consulted in the design of this building? I would like to hear the opinion of the people who wok in this building every day about how it is to work and do their jobs in this“masterpiece.“ Too often design does not mean functionality.
21
I wonder whether the Queens Library system has the resources to maintain the white exterior against city dirt and to keep such large windows clean.
It is a fine thing to build striking buildings with striking interiors, but in NYC, once construction is finished, public entities often think very little about maintenance to preserve appearance and infrastructure (aside from required facade and other safety inspections).
A large white building with large windows raises this question, which, in my view, should be an essential element in design and construction as well as in reviewing the outcome of the project. Architecture, being an esthetic art and one that people use daily, depends on maintenance. Difficulties of maintenance compromise people's use and pleasure. I would ask whether Kimmelman might have considered this issue, just as he looks so broadly at the city's processes that make distinguished buildings so hard to come by.
11
Holl's library is just like so many of his other buildings - kind of shallow, kind of dysfunctional, kind of fake, kind of depressing, all marketing to the narrow band of Design buddies he yearns for the approval of.
Kimmelman accidentally identifies the main motive for Holl - for the library to be seen from a distance on the waterfront when he writes that it's "a playful advertisement for itself — it’s even a little like the Pepsi sign." The word "playful" belies the dismissive attitude of the critic and the architect towards the people who live in Hunters Point and will actually use Holl's sculptural creation, and likening it to an advertisement reveals how Hull thinks of his work in general.
Beyond being just another designer-label building, two big missed opportunities: how poorly the design uses its extraordinary site (beyond the view), and how the potential flexibility of a branch library program missed the opportunity to be an exemplar of sustainable design. Marpillero Pollak Architects accomplished so much more than Holl. They fully utilized and enobled a much more humble and difficult site with their Elmhurst branch library in Queens, a library that's beloved to actual users.
12
It's a "striking new library" because it looks like the architect designed it blindfolded.
2
A gem? Its ugly! It looks like something a 5 year old would create. Actually that's an insult to a 5 year old.
And $40 million? You have a building that is basically a box! They should have built a box for a couple of million and used the rest of the money for books.
4
Wow. That's really ugly.
3
Why is everyone so grumpy tonight? I can understand how the surrounding community would have felt frustrated and angry during the prolonged construction process, and, yes, all New Yorkers should be concerned about cost overruns. But the building is done now, and - as the photos demonstrate - it is beautiful! Plus, it is a public library - the BEST kind of public building - and so belongs to all of us. I don't live in Hunters Point, but I often travel there to visit Gantry Plaza State Park, - another beautiful public space that belongs to all New Yorkers, and my favorite spot in Queens. I remember when the library was nothing but a hole in the ground, though one surrounded by a buoyantly whimsical fence wrap depicting New Yorkers of all ages and walks of life - even the Statue of Liberty - every one of them immersed in a good book. I can't wait to go see the new building for myself the next time I am in the neighborhood. I will probably go by subway; it's not far from the Vernon Boulevard station on the #7 line. I will bring my library card and take my time browsing the shelves. Then I will go out to Gantry Plaza and choose a spot for myself - sun or shade, depending on the weather - and begin to read. Every so often I will look up and gaze for a few moments at the Manhattan skyline before returning to my (free!) book.
8
It looks like a California building.
2
@Bruce Quinn
Oh that hurts...
3
If this is good architecture, the architectural practice must be in extremis.
5
@jhimbiz
99% of the stuff built today is either bland or hideous. Especially anything by Frank Gehry.
1
The square foot cost is around $1800. For that kind of money, it OUGHT to be spectacular. I can't imagine how the cost was justified and funding acquired.
5
This summer I visited the Dun Laoghaire library designed by Carr Cotter & Naessens. It was spacious and modern with great views. I was wondering why we can’t have something this impressive in NYC. I’m glad we do now.
4
Great article, and beautiful building. Gives me a reason to visit NY. I don't think people realize how important urban development is to the community, it can offer, hope, creativity, stability, a sense of pride and so much more to it's residents. The cost is worth the investment and they should only hire the best.
8
I like minimalism, but for me, good architecture should to some extent be ordered and adhere to classical principles.
1
One may be taken by the design of this structure and defend it, but the rest of the commentary is naive beyond comprehension. At $2000 per square foot, it is one of the most expensive libraries ever built. During an administration of equity, it should be noted that the expenditure was not made in a disadvantaged community, but rather in a predominantly white and East Asian district with median income 186% of the national average. Initial funding was raised through the machinations of the library president who escaped a jail sentence for corruption including double dipping government salaries across three counties. Rather than "pea counters" it was insidious corruption prevailing through the selection, design and construction processes that lead to excessive costs.
As "beautiful" as the design may be the structure's deficiencies loom large. It does not meet basic sustainability measures especially for energy reduction and it is built in a floodplain with zero protections. The site was completely inundated after Hurricane Sandy. It will be a test to see if it makes it to 2030 when $40M may go out to sea.
10
How exciting. I cannot wait to visit and check it out with my first grader. Thank you for this informative and greatly needed article about how to foster good public architecture and buildings in our city.
2
Yes, it was a tough time for architecture. Fit the notch at that time
.
This is an interesting article. I suppose I could say the same thing about a particular work of architecture that I could say about a particular work of art, which might be that I like it or I don’t, but unfortunately as I have never studied either art or architecture, my opinion would be only that and would have no basis in historical knowledge or expertise. I like the Dutch in art, and southwestern or Mexican architecture, for example, although I suppose that Mexican architecture might not be appropriate for New York City. It is just that it is warm and simple, and while I like minimalism, (simplicity, as opposed to ornateness), I do not like cold, modern minimalism. It is repellent. When I grew up in a small southern town, we were blessed with an old Carnegie library. It was so wonderful, and I spent really countless hours growing up there. I would be very interested in seeing a photographic compilation of these old libraries. Did they have a common design? What did they cost, in current dollars? They were not “modern”, but I would think preWorld War 2 European, in some way. Perhaps some readers know. Years ago, when a new, bigger library was built, adjacent and in the same park, the Carnegie was kept as a historical center. It is still great, and beautiful, and functional, and very much used, today. Carnegie as a man had his faults, but he was probably the greatest philanthropist, or at least I selfishly think so.
3
I love Holl’s work but as an architect who has worked on numerous libraries over the past 3 decades I often wonder if the age of the stand-alone and architecturally singular library should be drawing to a close...particularly with branch libraries in urban areas where land is extremely expensive. Nationwide library use is way up and the books will always be part of any library program. That said, I have observed that flexibility, including the ability to expand AND contract over shorter and shorter use-trend cycles, has trumped inflexible architectural singularity as a key consideration during programming and design. Today I see many libraries needing to be re-transformed almost as often as retail and business spaces. As I see it, the library as fixture within an mixed use structure or development including housing and incubator office and even light manufacturing will be the way of the future. Libraries will be constantly having to repurpose their spaces which will require structures that are more like the flexible cast iron facade loft structures of SOHO than the Guggenheim Museum.
5
@Woodson Dart
Couldn't have said it better, myself.
I'm a degree librarian (University of Arizona) who grew old and grey as a public librarian pushing a bookmobile through central New Jersey. My dedication has always been to provide outreach to the taxpayers. I like the "community" in the name of the new Queens library but stand alone brick and mortar monuments such as this with all the usual political and tired library infrastructure are simply outdated. Many interested in public libraries and how bibliographic services are delivered have noted this but few have bothered to promote a cost effective 21st century iteration of the institution. What's needed is placing community library services that now include babysitting, remedial reading, various educational classes and meeting rooms, digital services, and so on in a Community Services Building that encompasses governmental agencies and services. (A good example is located in Vancouver, Canada.) The canyon-like lobby entrance pictured in the article is just another example of wasted space, not to mention a theatrical staircase. Too many cooks in the kitchen and clueless architects always results in bad outcomes.
13
Too true.
1
perhaps it feels differently in person, but the shapes of the large outside wall windows are spatially awkward and the interior spaces feel oppressively overbuilt, with weightiness overhead swooping down into one's peripheral vision. seems like a perfect boondoggle.
4
While I understand the point the author is making, I can’t help but feel disappointed at the choice of location for this “beacon.” I can think of other needier and poorer immigrant neighborhoods in Queens where any beacon of public attention and largess is more sorely needed. Just north of Hunters Point and under the Queensboro Bridge there are a lot of disadvantaged New Yorkers living in public housing. Never mind other eastern Queens neighborhoods along the 7 train serving immigrants from all over the world. Instead, LIC, a current outpost of well-to-do and priced out Manhattanites and Brooklynites and wealthy foreigners gets showered with yet more abundance than it really needs.
9
This is the best of what cities can do, rarely seen here in Los Angeles, which is to make public spaces inspiring and welcoming.
If the city continues to coddle the ultra rich, the very least it can do is give the general public great architecture, transportation, schools, and free public spaces to enjoy.
Most people live in confined spaces in new york, and the trade off needs to be inviting.
1
This is practically brutalist. Look at the great libraries built before World War II and hang your head in shame. This kind of building drives people away.
5
The World’s Borough, Queens, and its diverse population deserves better. This Hunters Point Community Library is just what, we , in the outer boroughs, deserves . It is what our community sees fit that will make this building function efficiently and a great success .
As the founder(1998) of the grassroots movement to have this library built and the President Of the Friends Of Queens Public Library At Hunters Point , I am very proud of this branch of the Queens Public Library that will serve many generations to come.
[email protected]
7
@Mark Christie betrays a need to share in the spotlight, and it is not his for this accomplishment. Gross egoism, and perhaps a grandiosity that will infect the activities of this public space. Just a heads up, and one he invited by making it “all about him.”
An entire community pulled for this accomplishment.
1
Pea counter?? Please tell him we are called bean counters and we wear green eye shades?
5
This year New York City passed legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Tomorrow will see a major Climate demonstration. Yet an article about a new Library building says nothing about the energy efficiency or emissions of the building. Mr. Kimmelman is out of touch with the times in not including these factors in his analysis.
1
What a riot!
This is supposed to be our finest?
Ha!
We're a dying society, revel in it!
5
Maybe it just looks so good to Kimmelman because of its context: embedded within so much banality. Next to the 42 St. Library or the main Brooklyn Library, it is looks like an IKEA project with its sterile whites, it jigsawed proportions and its bamboo-blase. Queens deserves better.
8
@Ken I don't know if it was Kimmelman, but someone from the Times wrote a glowing review a couple of years ago on the new Seattle Public Library, and I believe particularly praising a reading room or something at the top that was flooded with light. One of the comments to that piece was from a Seattle resident who said yes, and all the seats in that place were now filled with sleeping homeless people.
Beause libraries can't eject anyone, many, including some spectacular ones, are now filled with sleeping people, people talking to themselves, bathing in the bathrooms, couples having sex in the bathrooms, etc., because they've nowhere else to go to do those things. Perhaps some of these places should instead be reviewed from the point of view of their success in meeting the needs of those communities,
3
This building is an example of how high-brow architects punish the rest of us with hyperminimalism that even Mies would hate because his minimalism was limited to small buildings. Ugh, ugh, ugh! These kinds of buildings are yet another reason we are so depressed, oppressed, and repressed. They impose fascist power-relations on us.
6
Very handsome. But as a librarian, I am asking what others have about all those steps? Do they have lots of elevators for strollers and wheelchairs, and how do disabled people get the materials from those sections which go up steps. Are there lots of blind spots perfect for the sort of crazies every public library inevitably attracts? Places that will invite the homeless to camp out? (We once had someone unroll a sleeping bag beneath a desk. Really.) Are those cute bleachers really practical for story times with very small children, pregnant women and uncontrolled older kids?
Above all, is there adequate book space, are the shelves practical and adjustable and child safe, are the computers set up so that people can work privately but still not sit there watching porn, and above all, does this design deal with noise? Because between small children, loud conversations on cell phones, and all the other clatter, the modern public library is NOT quiet!
Architecture is great. But views and exteriors don't help the people who have to work there if the design is not impractical. And most architects designing libraries seem to know nothing about what actually goes on in them?
36
@Elizabeth These days you don't need "blind spots" for people to sleep, etc. At least where I live, in Manhattan, they do it right out in the open in the libraries, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. I think some of these places should be reviewed from the perspective of how they succeed as homeless day care centers, not as places with books, computers, DVDs, etc. (because they have few of those these days). But I suspect neither Kimmelman nor any of his Times colleagues actually uses a local library as a patron.
5
Postmodernism was a disaster for architecture.
3
Manhattan's recent architecture, if it can be called that, us ugly and a blight on a once beautiful city.
The recent 'yards' is a disaster in every way.
5
Mr. Kimmelman follows in the footsteps of his ignominious Times predecessors Paul Goldberger and Herbert Muschamp, shamelessly groveling at the feet of celebrity architects to lubricate his accessibility to the in-crowd. One might wonder if the founders of the Modern Movement, if they could see the nadir to which the profession would sink a century later, would have simply called the whole thing off to avert the disaster. Today, the rules for architectural celebrityhood are simple: as long as your huge, novel-looking sculpture is hollow inside, and has a door through which one can go in and out, it qualifies as architecture. Mr. Holl's sketchbooks are filled with fist-sized doodles of scaleless lumps like this one in Queens, which are then passed off to underlings who have to figure out how to cram the program inside. I would challenge anyone to take a hard, close look at any one of the New York Public branch libraries built at the turn of the last century, and then do the same with this building in Hunter's Point, and tell me with a straight face that ours is not a culture in decline.
10
I don’t know what history of modern architecture you’re referring to, but this is absolutely in the spirit of early 20th century modernist design without being beholden to it. The concatenary arches: Antonio Gaudi. The curvilinear bamboo surfaces: Charles and Ray Eames. The views framed by windows: Le Corbusier. The soaring minimalist spaces: Lou Kahn. They even have Jean Nouvel and Alvar Aalto furniture!
You can have an opinion about whether or you like it. But your use of “the Modern Movement” to defend it is specious.
2
$40 million dollar eye-sore that accomplishes nothing.
6
@99percent
It's a library. It accomplishes the promotion of literacy and building community for all citizens of NYC. Isn't that enough? What else do you want it do ?
3
@David S.
Collections and programming promote literacy in public libraries, not obsolete artsy-fartsy stand alone buildings that cost a fortune to build.
5
The city’s procurement rules are complex, but not inherently inflexible. So why are they so inflexibly applied? Ask Comptroller Stringer, who routinely exceeds his legal authority to reject any contract that shows any hint of creativity or innovation.
@ Ecco Homo slurs Scott Stringer who knows the city inside out, helps and cares for this neighborhood, isa a mensch, and smarter than our current mayor, thank you. For what reason? Eh, running for mayor?
I pray Mr. Stringer chooses to run!
I am totally befuddled by all of the critical comments on this page.
New Yorkers routinely bemoan the death of public space and the increasing privatization of the city for the benefit of billionaires.
And yet here is a public space designed to be accessible to all New Yorkers that promotes literacy and community. So its aesthetic might not be your cup of tea. But given that it is for EVERYONE and not just a privileged few, why on earth would you be critical of it?
Furthermore, it’s Ia LIBRARY, not another bank, nail salon, or artisanal coffee shop. Isn’t that worth celebrating?!?
17
Queens is the best. I spent a significant amount of time at the Elmhurst library by my uncle's, which was also light filled, but seemingly more functional. It was always gloriously filled with people enjoying it, a true mark of a building.
5
@Andy My public library library branch in Manhattan is "gloriously filled" with sleeping street people (who sometimes smell like they have been dead for a couple of weeks) and sometimes street couples looking to have sex in the bathrooms. The city was supposedly starting some program where mobile vans with showers and other amenities were going to go around to places in the city where people in need of such facilities congregate so they could freshen up without any fuss. Why they haven't sent any of these to branches of @NYPL in midtown Manhattan is beyond me.
I hope it was a long time ago your uncle used the library, as today he might be hard pressed to find what he wanted, if it was just something like books in English and DVDs, as those seem in quite short supply these days.
4
This space is stunning. I can't wait to view it one day when I'm in the city.
4
Eh, nothing special. Yes, the graphic windows are somewhat cool but also seem arbitrarily (gimmicky) in terms of how they relate to the interior spaces. Is this an architectural gem? Is the AT&T building a gem?
1
The simple answer to the question is cost. We can't have more buildings like that one bc of the cost. Spend the money on books not fancy buildings.
5
Libraries are not just concrete bunkers with shelves. They are also public spaces and community centers. That’s how Carnegie conceived of them over a century ago.
Given how many spaces have become private and/or exclusive in this money-infested city, a place that combines public access, literacy, and good design should be celebrated.
It’s for ALL of us. We should welcome it!
11
@David S.
You can get a perfectable serviceable building for a lot less that $40 million and have lots left over for actual books
4
How does this building handle handicap access ? I see lots of spaces that depend on stairs for access. Notching is mentioned about ADA compliance.
6
The building is fully ADA-compliant. I guess ramps and elevators just didn’t strike the author’s (or the photographer’s) fancy.
2
It’s absolutely ADA compliant. So no worries there.
They would not have been able to get funding for a public building of this kind without meeting ADA requirements.
3
To me, 'modern architecture' is similar to someone telling you a mildly funny joke. You chuckle, then promptly dismiss it. When the teller insists on retelling the same joke each new day, it gets on your nerves. The same with modern architecture. Mildly interesting at first, it descends into an assault on the senses each day it comes into view. Such is this so-called 'gem'. Really wonderful structures such the Greek and Roman temples, the Gothic cathedrals, and the works of geniuses such as Christopher Wren are age spanning tributes to the human spirit. This building is no more durable than a hula hoop.
6
There already is an architectural gem of a public library- in Brooklyn.
3
We watched the progress of construction when visiting family next door these past few years. It’s a lovely building; very inviting. As a career librarian who spent many “deads of night” moving law libraries from one building to another, it would have been nice to have a picture of staff actually placing books on the shelves and installing computers. Most patrons don’t know about the kind of planning and effort such a project requires. It’s not by magic that such places exist, although I will say that libraries are magical places.
9
I love architecture and I love libraries but this doesn't make too much sense. I am all for creating interesting spaces and it's worth spending a little more money for it.
Just from these photos alone you can tell that this is not about a functioning library. Books shouldn't be on multiple levels and as others have mentioned, this doesn't look very wheelchair friendly, not to mention any librarian with a cart full of books.
Also the function of libraries have changed quite a bit. Books are not that important anymore and you can "borrow" stuff from your library directly to your computer device.
I wish money would be spend more on a libraries content instead for the looks.
Library user here for more of 45 years here and interested in architecture.
6
I do get some books from the library and otherwise straight to my device but I still prefer having the book. And I certainly prefer my children get books as opposed to being on their devices. Convenience just everything. Sometimes it robs of us of richer experiences.
This wasn't mentioned in the article, but some have raised the question and energy and environment impact.
"Holl is very conscious of nature’s intrinsic part in his designs. This Queens Library building is economical and sustainable, in accord with Holl’s consciousness of our standing in this planet; it meets the LEED standards. Although the energy system is efficient, they could not use expensive geothermal wells."
3
The library is beautiful but in my poor neighborhood in Queens, I have to walk 20 blocks with my 17 months old daughter to get to the closest library :(.
4
It is sad to read the negative first five reader comments.
I had forgotten that original architecture like contemporary art requires visual knowledge of the medium. This new library is a bold beautiful visual masterpiece. I am reminded of the shock that greeted the Guggenheim museum when it opened. Congratulations are in order to the architects and community leaders who worked to bring this beautiful building to us all. Thank you !
9
The cost of construction comes to $1,818 per square foot. That's over three times the cost of construction per square foot in the New York real estate market--just the type of thing that will make even the progressive New York voters sour on public construction. Of all services that the United States contracts to foreign entities (including hiring armies of foreign software developers, medical researchers, and now agricultural workers through the H-1B and H-2A visa programs), I wonder what it would be like if we allowed foreign construction companies to build our buildings. Why should public construction work be the last remaining area in our economy that remains a bastion of labor unions and their rampant corruption? If we stamp out corruption and bring competition, how many more public buildings and affordable housing can go up in cities like New York and Los Angeles where billions of dollars of bonds are sold for affordable housing that only result in a trickle of units built? If foreign construction companies can deliver buildings at less than half the cost and at one-third the time, we should do it. Regardless of how nice the Hunters Point Library is, for $40 million and 22,000 square feet, the city should have bought six adjacent houses in Hunters Point for $9 million and converted them into a "campus-style" library and saved the taxpayers $31 million.
6
Thank you for bringing a beautiful building to my attention. I'll surely visit it the next time that I'm in NYC. Should humans forsake beauty (as many commenters imply) until who knows what?
2
I read the headline and the sub-headline and literally laughed when the picture popped up.
3
"Finest and most uplifting public buildings New York has produced so far this century"- rather damning indictment of NYC architecture if that's the case. Looks like the European concrete monstrosities built in the aftermath of WW2.
7
OMG! Kimmelman actually likes a new NYC building. Will wonders never cease?
In all the years he's be writing on architecture in the NYT I cannot remember one positive review. This is amazing -- almost scary!
1
Ironically, the answer to the title appears in the lede.
New York likes luxury condos and billionaire towers, haven’t you noticed. Real estate industry is the pinnacle of greed and shortsightedness.
2
Ha, you should see seattle. Most construction cranes in the US 3 years running. What’s going up? Ugly square blocks, that’s what. City councils should demand some design from these developers who are raking it in.
5
Thanks for Writing such a flowery article on a piece of architecture in Queens. As usual the NYT snubs the outer boroughs. One of the main reasons this article was written is due to the cost of the building. Any place else in Queens is overlooked except for its “ethnic restaurants“ if it’s not in Manhattan it’s not important - same goes for new NY magazine !
The QPL In Elmhurst is also a creatively designed & inspired architectural building, that has been redone many times over the past 20 years - Will it get kids to read ? Let’s hope !
3
This building is full of hazards for children and is a hideous stain on our neighborhood. It is a greater symbol of wasted taxpayer dollars and procrastinated construction than architectural ingenuity. What happened to the great NYC beaux-arts tradition? This looks like a children's penitentiary.
12
Kimmelman brings some valid points about costs and how construction is awarded to the lowest bidder, but I question his his sense of aesthetic. This is building is an eyesore. Kimmelman are you aiming to be a partner at Steven Holl? Most of your reviews of their hideous architecture are overwhelmingly positive.
4
Say what you want to say about the design... the entire project... but it... stimulates. And that is the point of a library... to stimulate.
6
The city must integrate measures to lower building temperature and reduce water waste. https://accesscities.org/announcement-of-finalists-for-the-open-innovation-call-n-new-york-targeting-air-quality-and-urban-heat-island-effect/
How many small, neighborhood libraries would $40 million have paid for rather than this ridiculous vanity project?
14
My public library in Queens has just a handful of computers, a handful of books, a handful of this and that. Its pathetic. Worse - our neighboring libraries are pretty much the same. Why? No money. They spending all goes to the flagship libraries. Please. The one thing we don't need - more eyecatching and expensive buildings.
67
@anae Yes, we need more books and DVDs. But unfortunately rich people seem to want to give money for buildings to serve as temples to themselves, at least that seems to be the way it is @NYPL.
Further, while I understand the need to make up for centuries of discrimination, I find NYPL's policy of not buying requested books and DVDs deemed "white people" stuff frustrating. For nearly a year I have been putting in requests for them to order season 2 of "The Crown" with no luck. Likewise, several terrific European TV thriller series that aren't even in English and often feature people of color in a favorable light and whose subtitles come not only in English, but also Spanish and several other languages. They used to regularly buy new seasons of these shows, but no longer.
When they get down to their last English copy of a book by someone like PD James or Ruth Rendell (having "lost" all the other copies) they take that one copy to a room on the 3d floor of the main libe at Fifth and 42d, call it something like a "rare" book, and tell you if you want to read it you can go read it there; it no longer circulates. Sorry, even if you're in your 70s you have to go there. In the meantime, one sees in the catalog that three copies of the same book translated into Spanish are on order and will soon be circulating.
10
@ellienyc
You mention " Lost " copies of library books.
Unfortunately many are stolen and sold in a
variety of obvious " used book " venues. Used
crisp new books often have the library sign out card and sign out record page still attached.
That is why the last library copy migrates to the " rare book " room.
To stop this, libraries will have to begin to use
audible alarm systems stores use to prevent
theft. It is not expensive or difficult to do . In
the long run it would save libraries and the
public a significant amount of money.
Libraries : PLEASE DO THIS !
3
@Neil I used the term"lost" sarcastically, as that is term NYPL uses -- expressing amazement when you ask why the book you asked for six months ago still hasn't shown up. (And then often adding something stupid like "well the catalog shouldn't have let your order that in first place because it hasn't existed for a long time"). Or why you have to go to main library during normal business hours and read there They have absolutely no security, despite having uniformed guards in many branches (whose primary purpose seems to be to tap sleeping people on shoulder to remind to try to stay awake, which sleepers rarely do). Further, when someone tries to check something out and is told they can't because they have $15 or whatever limit is on overdue fines, and librarian says you have to pay fines first, person exclaims something like "I think someone broke into my apartment and stole the library books/dvds/whatever" and the librarian either WRITES OFF WHOLE AMOUNT OR ACCEPTS MAYBE A THIRD OF WHAT IS DUE TO BE FORGIVEN. I hear this all the time --people exclaiming they didn't know there were fines and can't imagine what happened to the materials they checked out.
What riles me is that in many cases where original English version is down to one copy and people are told to go to main library to read on-site and the library will not order more copies in English, it WILL AND DOES order Spanish translations that DO circulate. I have seen this with my own eyes in on-line catalog.
4
A library is, obviously, about books.
I am an artist who reads a lot. One who appreciates a work of art whether a book or a building. When it comes to money, a work of art depends for its material worth on public opinion. At any given time the value of public opinion may be a consensus of sorts, or not.
Personally I do like a library that is comfortable but what really matters to me is access to my favorite kind of entertaining and educational material, especially new books from my favorite writers.
Better to spend the funds available on the contained rather than the container.
7
Do we really need to point out that it's only 2019 and the hyperbolic language of "one of the greatest buildings of this century" is a tad over blown? Not to mention that this "great" building is really an eyesore.
6
Further evidence that anything new and beautiful in the City can be traced to Bloomberg.
1
And if it’s traced back to Bloomberg, it is built in the affluent neighborhoods.
2
$40 million sounds like a steal to me. Better than spending the same amount to build two miles of wall in the desert.
10
I love the way contemporary architecture critics extol the virtues of the urban fabric and the praise a building that sticks out like a sore thumb!
2
Right building maybe, but wrong place. Look at that photo from the East River. It looks completely out of place surrounded by those residential skyscrapers. It should have been negotiated into an apartment tower that a developer put it on the ground floor of his project.
1
I can only hope New York will not build another modern monstrosity such as this.
4
The negative tone of the title ( perhaps not the author’s choice) is typical of our carping era’s inability to open heartedly praise or appreciate without adding a sting in the tail
1
Without seeing it first hand it is hard to take issue with this building. It seems a worthy enough addition, especially when compared to the inexcusable disaster that assaults the eye of those driving down the Westside Highway approaching 57th St. That mindless jumble of haphazard, hideous architecture is without a doubt the ugliest, most disgraceful morass of modernism ever assembled within a square mile. It literally make me sick to my stomach every time I drive by.
1
Light colored buildings often do not seem to do well in this city. Before the NYC dirt and grime make this building even more depressing, this building is just crying out, "Someone tag me, please!"
4
Other sites list the square footage at 32,000?
Why would you design a public library to look like a modern, post industrial, brutalist Wendy's hamburger shop?
In 10 years or less it will look tired, and people will be tired of it.
4
No, only people with no urbanism in their hearts and who can’t see will be tired of it
1
I cannot comment on the project since I haven't visited yet, but I commend Mr. Kimmelman for calling out the absent mayor and DDC. As an architect who was involved in one of the DDC design excellence projects, I can assure you the project was a nightmare. The lowest bidder mentality defeats the purpose of Design Excellence Program. As for the library, perhaps $40mil is an irresponsible amount of public money, but at least the neighborhood got a focal point and a community space that does not discriminate. Design Excellence Program needs more accountability, and the employees of NYC public agencies need to move past the bureaucracy and status quo.
8
This article is entirely true and well overdue. The DDC selects the best architects and engineers based on quality, tells them what their fee will be based on a curve, has them design world class facilities, then bids out the construction to the lowest bidders who are not qualified in any way. This is a recipe for schedule and budget overrun which the DDC excels at and yes they often blame the design team who are not at fault.
The DDC's most recent design excellence contract for Mega Projects over $50M was canceled after extensive proposal submission and contract negotiation process. Winning firms were sent a letter that stated "in the best interest of the city, this contract has been canceled." No further explanation was given to team who spent hundreds of hours responding to the proposals and fulfilling contract requirements. The upcoming projects still need to be built, what is to happen to them?
The DDC is going down hill fast. Del Blasio doesn't care about design Lorainne Grillo doesn't care about design. I shudder to imagine the future of public buildings in the city.
7
I love the exterior but did it have to be a square cube? Seems like a missed opportunity in terms of the design. The warm colored interiors are great -- very inviting but shouldnt a library have some colorful artwork somewhere on a wall?
2
While not always a fan of Mr. K. (particularly when he strays from his design/architecture brief) this article hit the mark on the overarching issues. Forget this specific building which you can like or loathe.
The issue is the sclerotic, inefficient and likely corrupted (if not quite the days of Tweed and Tammany) municipal approval and funding process, including favored contractors who bid low. In Kimmelman's pithy phrase, "bottom feeders".
Though it goes against every political instinct of the current municipal political leadership, how about public/private partnerships which already are used in some projects? After all the subways (at least the pre-1930's ones) were built privately, and so was the old Penn Station and the still existing Grand Central If the bureaucracy cannot save the taxpayer's funds and get the project completed on time and on budget, get out of the way and let private capital bear the risk, with public oversight.
4
@Unworthy Servant Check your history. The subways were built by the City of New York because no private company would undertake such a risky project. The IRT Company did not build them.
Sure, get out of the way of private capital. This is how we got the dysfunctional healthcare system (if we can even call it that) that we have today.
1
@Margarets Dad
Oh please. Follow the money. The IRT was funded in its construction by private capital, in the person of August Belmont Jr. Then along came Thomas Fortune Ryan to fund a competing system. That there was a public board overseeing the construction of subways but not funding it is exactly what I am talking about!
Because they need to spend their money on fixing the subway...
2
The excessive use of stairs is dangerous for all users in varying degrees. Including disabled employees.
Not just wheelchair users but elderly and children who trip and fall.
The design is not warm and inviting but rather cool and ascetic.
I spent five years designing my retirement home for Hawaii with architects and builders. No stairs. Large open rooms that invite entry. No where to trip. Outdoor natural light whenever possible.
My Masters Degree is in rehabilitation counseling, career counseling for disabled people.
I’m sorry to be so critical but cold architecture design leaves me....well, cold.
29
Libraries, schools, courthouses. city halls and other government buildings often were beautiful buildings with grand doors, big marble columns, marble floors, architectural details, sometimes lovely terra cotta ornamentation. They used to say, "This is an important building." Have you seen some of the high schools built around 1900? Gorgeous.
Now, buildings like libraries and schools are big blocks, not much different than a big box store. It doesn't feel like an honor to walk into them anymore. The buildings say, "This is just another building. No big deal."
15
I am a 70 year old woman with bad knees. There is certainly architectural beauty here, but when I see all those stairs I think of all the people who will not be able to negotiate this space. I do not see any mention of accessibility, nor do I see any ramps or elevators. And the photo of the stacks shows them on different levels; do you have to actually climb stairs to get from one level of bookcases to another?
27
$40 million and a decade to build?!?
Another example of 'form' being given far too much priority while function and cost are lost in the process. No matter what your opinion of the aesthetics, the cost and construction time make this a failure.
11
I've read many comments questioning accessibility. I have no doubt this building is built to code. Yes, a handicapped person may have to take the elevator, moving from amazing space to amazing space, rather than getting the amazing view from the middle of the staircase. Meanwhile, everywhere else in the world, we're just happy if there is a public library at all. My local library is now closed on weekends due to lack of funding. But hey, the internet, where I can read the NYT and admire other people's public libraries.
5
The architect didn't blame the city? Wow. Either there actually is one with humility, or he wants more business.
1
That building is unpleasant to look at. Plus the money could have been better used in myriad ways, such as building more schools to lower the student-teacher ratio with smaller classes.
There are many gorgeous buildings on the planet, from ancient to modern, but this is not one of them.
Public money, the public should decide how it looks and what the spending priorities are....the decisions should not be in the hands of entitled hipsters, of whatever age.
5
@Lily I assure you, there are no hipsters at the DDC.
1
I think it's stunning. You can already see how people will do homework or study on the round tables, you can already see the draw of the bleachers for kids reading books together. It looks beautiful. Every community needs a great library: as a place for quiet reflection, for work, and as a community space. They are as sacred and important as churches, synagogues, temples and mosques, and they're as vital to happiness as parks and public squares.
6
I passed by this yesterday and wondered what it was. Had a hunch it was a library because of the, well yes, books inside. I think it is a great addition to the LIC neighborhood. Why not invest in new libraries that happen to be aesthetically pleasing?
7
We just returned from Helsinki and stumbled across their new (opened last year) central library. I say stumbled because when you google top things to do in Helsinki it doesn't even show up.
It's a 170,000 sq. ft. building that cost $110 million to build. It's an extraordinary structure from a design standpoint and is a magnet for the community.
It was jammed while we were there with all generations. It has cafes and areas conducive to groups meeting to work on projects.
Finland is not a low cost country by any means so to think that they have fours times the space for only slightly more twice the price is bothersome.
From design to completion took less than 6 years!
22
Looks beautiful but are all the spaces accessible for people with restricted movement? The children’s bleachers seem hazardous for toddlers or moms holding hands with a child.
7
As a non-resident who occasionally visits the city and has an interest in architecture, it certainly is nice to be able to read for once about a striking new building designed for the general public, rather than the care and feeding of billionaires. Public libraries are more important than ever, for children, for seniors, for people without Internet access, as community centers, and as desperately needed public space. Congratulations to everyone who persevered and got this one built.
6
@Lawrence But unfortunately some libraries, like mine in midtown Manhattan, are devoting less and less time and money to books and DVDs. Many have also become ad hoc day care centers for the homeless.
I have been to the nice new library in downtown Salt Lake CIty. Do you have problems like this in your city?
3
@ellienyc Yes, the SLC Library and its branch libraries do have issues with the homeless, though I think that says more about our local and national inability to provide services (especially mental health services and housing) to that population than it does about libraries per se. I do agree though that new buildings without the funds for physical collections are a problem. (I teach at a university here, and my students, many of whom were small children when the iPhone debuted, still prefer physical books to to e-books. E-books are also of little use for those who can't afford a computer or tablet, or don't have Internet access.)
1
It's funny because just the other day I happened to be by the LIC waterfront, and I too was struck by this building. It's stunning! At first I assumed it was a modern art museum...
8
The headline made me hopeful that I'd see a photo of a gracious and aesthetically pleasing building that I would want to visit. Instead, it's just another modern,unwelcoming and clumsy scar on the landscape.
10
I think the architecture of this library is thrilling and I'm looking forward to visiting it. However, from the published photos and plans, it doesn't appear that the stacks are accessible to people who can't use a stairway. Librarianship, as a profession, places great value on being fully accessible to all. It seems remarkable that such a prominent new facility might not be designed for universal access.
I hope that I'm just missing information and that the building actually does have some way of making the tiered shelving of the entry 'canyon' accessible. Can Mr. Kimmelman please clarify?
13
I haven’t seen this library in person, and yes, it is expensive. But libraries are not only for lending books anymore. They are for inspiring a community, bringing people together for all kinds of reasons-AA meetings, art shows, book discussion groups, improv classes, computer literacy classes-all which strengthen the fabric of the community.
A beautiful building draws people in and can help to change their lives as a result.
9
Unlike the majority of commenters, I think this structure is beautiful, both inside and out.
As I travel throughout the city, I find the similarity of virtually all of our new construction to be depressing. And most depressing of all is One World Trade Center, which appears to me to be an awkward angular building that's awful by day, but more tolerable at night when you can't see the disconnect between its radio tower and the top of the building.
Equally disappointing to me are the buildings in the Hudson Yards project. While some of them have fanciful cut-outs and surprising shapes, they are all constructed of the same materials (steel and reflective glass), and as a result to my eye they are flat and boring.
On the other hand, among my favorite new buildings are the American Copper Buildings alongside the FDR Drive. The use of copper in the construction is beautiful, and the bend in the shape and use of the skywalk are very interesting. I think the overall impression is elegant, and I wish there were more buildings of that quality being built.
As I travel around the world and see what other cities have to offer, such as London's Shard, I'm saddened that New York City contributes so little to the world of exciting architecture.
9
Lovely building, but to be honest it looks like it would cost $40 million to me. It's not exactly humble.
1
I think this building is gorgeous. I'm surprised not to find unanimity on the subject. Oh well, people didn't get VanGogh in his his time either....
But seriously, dear sir, the question is not why NYC cannot get more buildings like this. the question why are affluent neighborhoods the only places where courageous attempts at Architecture take place? Or am I being curmudgeonly?
7
why? because some will complain that too many homeless people hang out at these nice public buildings. Plus they don't make money so what's the point. Limousine liberals don't want to put their money where there mouths are either. So we end up with crumbling infrastructure and gated communities. More politicians should start working for the people they represent not the corporations who line their coffers -- who are not people, despite what Mitt Romney says.
5
40 million is nothing for a city filled with billionaires. According to Trump he could donate a minority of his largesse and the city could build another 50 of these.
It’s an absolute dream of a building. I think access to the outdoors is wonderful and that a lot of young New Yorkers will remember it as a warm refuge that shaped their childhood.
You guys are lucky to have public servants, builders, philanthropists and architects who cared enough to create something so beautiful. Please for once stop complaining.
13
Renzo Piano was the architect of Citylights, the first building of Queenswest, the design swallowed up by two cheaply designed buildings of the Avalon corporation, the original plan changed at the last moment, by the Queenswest Corporation, the NY State entity supposed to protect the master plan. Citylight and other buildings pay yearly rent for the privilege of sitting on that land; $500,00. A facing notable architect designed the FDR monument, also in view of our new library.
It appears the critic does not realize that the library references both buildings. I live in Citylights.
2
Quite apart from whether this deserves narrow aesthetic Art World-type praise, an intellectual transgression of monstrous proportions, the best thing anyone could do is take the 40 million, pocket change for the one percent, and split it into ten parts and award it to efforts to create a beautiful multi-person living space that would be a marker for future urban construction. Such ideas elude us evidently.
1
This building blocks the view for the fireworks on the East River.. Access to the riverbank is important... as is open space. People were not allowed in Gantry State Park during the East River fireworks...This whould never be advertized as a place to see them from! (The whole experience was unpleasant except it got me to a part of NYC where I had never been... and several Peruvian restos.
My local library is the bottom two floors of a high rise apt. bldg. Why not mmore of those.
Public libraries in many areas should be open til 10PM IMO so that kids have a place to study. And often people need/want access to computers. (And IMO maybe there should be coffee or tea available.)
Kimmelman says nothing about lighting or noise control or a computer area.
And PS something needs to be done about making roofs usable spaces everywhere in NYC.
So far as cheap construction check out certain aspects of subway renovation -- lighting fixtures and stairways (metal)... and there is also the case of expensive (granite tiles) construction which still does not mean that a space functons properly. (The 168th St. redone IRT no 1 subway area -- a year delay for elevator reinstallation -- the old ones worked fine!!)
3
Coffee and tea? To spill on keyboards? We’re talking about libraries not Barnes and Nobles. There is enough vandalism at QPL without inviting the resulting careless behavior!
3
1) the library systems don’t have enough money to pay for more staff to work late shifts at every branch. There are several branches in each borough which open early and close late and are open on Sundays. But that can’t be done at every branch without almost doubling the number of staff. They can barely afford to pay the ones they have now.
2) the city doesn’t open library rooftops because people jump off them and that’s usually where the incredibly large HVAC systems are. But people have committed suicide off library rooftops & balconies.
3
Where’s the entrance?
I couldn’t believe that the little opening visible in the first photo was actually the front door, so I went to the architect’s website, where surely, I thought, there would be some nice renderings of happy people going in and out of a welcoming transition between the outside and the inside, a place where you can fold your umbrella and maybe collect your children’s things before parking the stroller in a safe place. There would be pictures that showed how cleverly the architect had made the location accessible to the patrons.
But no. The vision of the architectural team seems to have stopped at the level of a 1970’s transit facility, when pouring concrete into curved molds was the latest thing in technique.
Maybe the building is better in real life, but real life in construction always has to start with a vision of how the space will be used, and whose interests will be served in using it. When the users are forgotten in the grand vision, they tend to be forgotten in the many details that make a building enjoyable to use.
Where’s the bathroom? Probably in the back somewhere, right next to the little elevator for handicapped persons.
35
"The city also does its budgeting year-by-year. How can any public agency plan a multiyear building project when it can’t even be sure the money it needs will be there?"
As I'm sure the author knows, a budget is a list of priorities hedging against risks such as revenue declines from recessions, natural disasters (re:hurricane Sandy) and cuts in funding from the State or Federal level. The city does not simply budget year by year. OMB conducts rigorous five year and 20 year projections. Read through the accounting reports for yourself.
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/omb/index.page
Pea counters they are not, because of them, NYC hasn't been close to a bankruptcy since the late 70s.
Point is, if you want big bold architecture to be built from libraries to other public spaces, lobby your council member, don't blame "pea counters".
And for what it's worth, rather than use tax dollars on a library in a wealthy,densely populated water front neighborhood, why not advocate for these architectural marvels to be built in neighborhoods that need investment. Where libraries can serve children deeper in the outer boroughs and not serve as a Instagram, rooftop hangout for millenials?
8
Libraries are an anachronism. They could have bought every child in Queens a laptop with wifi connection. That would be money better spent.
1
And further our children’s isolation? Libraries are about more than learning, they are about community - something we need to be promoting.
11
You think so? Maybe in California but not here in the 5 boroughs. Every public library I visit ( and I visit lots of them both for work and pleasure)is being used by New Yorkers of all ages at various times of the day.
10
Lovely building! I love libraries.
In Chicago the Harold Washington
Library in the Loop was roundly
condemned by critics but I think
it’s beautiful inside and out. It has
a big, gorgeous interior that’s kept
spotless and the usage is high.
If you want to see ugly new buildings, Oakland is the spot!
These folks just can’t find the will
to do anything lovely. LA on the
other hand absolutely rocks!
2
I think it looks wonderful and if the interior is as nice as our new Austin library it'll be packed with people enjoying it!
3
@MKP The Austin library is a GEM.
Wonderful and uplifting! I hope I get to see it someday
3
I haven't been inside, but if the outside of the building is a gem, I'm richer than Jeff Bezos.
5
@Cleota
In the second picture it looks like a hurricane damaged building.
I think the critic here missed the point. This library isn't usable. It's nearly 40,000 square feet with only about 17,000 of usable square footage. Even if the building cost $20M that still too much for the amount of usable space.
This library was designed to be a building and not a library. There are so many security provisions that had to be taken in account after the designs where done to ensure safety for patrons.
Of course there should be new and better libraries. But they should balance out the need to design something "cutting edge" with functionality. This building doesn't do that.
The stadium seating on the roof - sure, it's beautiful. But, what are the operational costs associated with opening that space to everyone and ensuring safety? What type of insurance does QPL need to protect themselves should anything happen? How many people do you staff in that area when you could staff them in the children's area or elsewhere?
The building has been built. Whether it becomes a library will be up to the staff and the patrons - but the building sure isn't helping.
40
Money. Do neighborhood children use it? Is it a active part of the community? Is it an anchor for real urban development or a showcase for city developers? Follow the money to see where they want to take it.
5
Sweet building - nice details. Main door could be larger and more welcoming.
Source - I'm a licensed Architect
5
If this were placed anywhere in Central or Eastern Europe it would have been branded as an ugly, Soviet-time monstrosity. The outside is absolutely unattractive and uninviting. But build it in NYC at $40M and it is "among the finest and most uplifting public buildings New York has produced so far this century"
The interior is pretty but seems so impractical. Stairs all around? Stairs between the rows of book-shelves? All these stairs will seriously clog traffic in the wheel-chair and stroller accessible areas.
I also wonder how the sun-light streaming from those huge windows facing the river, will affect the visitors.
I am all for modern, beautiful and bold design. But at library needs to be inviting and most of all practical, and this one is neither.
23
Michael Kimmelman's assessment of this monstrous edifice fully confirms that beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder.
13
Yet oddly, you can’t explain yourself in the least. The pix show a great building. If you’d like to know more, read the article.
It's a masterpiece. Like most great works it's unlike anything before it. The balance and interplay of the warmth of the colors in the interior, like a comfy room where you can read and contemplate, is contrasted by the glorious light and views through the windows, whose shapes take you by surprise in the best way. The kids' bleachers, and roof bleachers, provide a shared space for reading and interacting. Of course some may find the design of the whole building objectionable but, like all genuinely original designs, there is the unmistakeable shock of the new about it that gives this building its unique and dramatic character.
7
@semari
IMHO, just because something is unlike anything before it does not necessarily mean it's a masterpiece. "The shock of the new" will wear off in a few years but the building will probably be depressingly around for decades.
12
@semari
You write: Like most great works it's unlike anything before it.
A good example from the world of design is the Ford Edsel -- totally unlike anything before it...and a monstrous disaster, both aesthetically and commercially.
Best to use some other criteria for conferring masterpiece status.
5
@Cleota
fair point @Cleota...but sometimes once the shock of the new wears off some folks come to like it.
Your opinion is justified and your point is valid.
Looks lovely from inside, but so very ugly when viewed from without. Don't know how it looks while standing within the park, but from the Manhattan side of the East River it stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. Years of advocacy and hard work restoring the Long Island gantry, Pepsi Cola sign, and returning some of the shoreline to its magical days, and all for nought. Sad, indeed.
10
I think it's a brilliant building (from the photos). The exterior is graceful yet strong, simple yet playful within the visually busy background of LIC. The interior, with its bamboo warmth, spaciousness and gentle curves, seems peaceful and inviting.
I don't get such criticisms here of the "wasted space" (the money could've been spent on the poor!), too many staircases (I'm sure access ran through the architects' minds), its "impracticality" (form at the expense of function), "elitist" design, etc. Did you consider any of the points Kimmelman makes? What do you wish your architecture to look like? Why is it so wrong for visual expression to stand out (as in Calatrava's Oculus) and be remotely graceful, whimsical or even iconoclastic? We need architectural beacons, particularly those which aim to serve our minds and spirits, in our landscape to counter the dreary everydayness of commerce.
8
Laurence Bachmann writes as if anyone criticizing this building on values other than aesthetics is an unapologetically pragmatic philistine.
I am a graduate of The Cooper Union art school, of which I spoke in another comment.
Beautiful buildings make wonderful contributions to the civic, cultural and emotional life of places and are an important part of placemaking. But in the era of climate crisis, it is not enough that a building be beautiful. It must also perform, and the taxpayer must demand this. New state code, adopted from the international ICC code, mandates building performance to near Passive house levels. The critic complains about regulatory red tape but makes no mention of how code with regard to performance has become far more stringent than in decades past. Code compliance costs money. Gone are the days when I did commercial to residential loft conversions in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn while the city looked the other way.
I have a company called dwellstead that rescues buildings of architectural value and restores them to performance levels that cut energy demand by as much as 85%. I would like to know how well this library does in that regard, or if it somehow escaped scrutiny.
A colleague, Curtis Wayne, graduated from Cooper’s Architecture School when I graduated and got his masters at Harvard. He wrote "The Shape of Things That Work: The Fourth Architecture". It’s about architectural priorities. It’s a short, sweet read. You should try it.
5
While you were developing the advertisements for yourself, did you ever think to maybe look the environmental stuff up? It’s a public building, so all the documents are on public file. Or do they not teach research at Cooper Union?
Philistines are made of such bricks...and, I notice, you skipped right past the building’s aesthetic aualities, which is what philistinism is all about.
Yes, I got that you think aesthetics are not enough. But from Thoreau on, respect for the natural world has been intertwined with appreciation of what’s beautiful. With good reason.
4
@Robert This is America, nothing wrong with inserting a plug.
As for the documents, funny you should say that. I did look them up, as a matter of fact. I posed the question for rhetorical effect, designed for the architectural critic. He rarely, if ever, considers how performance values can be folded into outstanding design, and in fact how outstanding beauty can be the consequence of the consideration of performance values. It seems you don't either, therefore the snarky pushback.
Beautiful buildings can be excellent performing buildings. Today, they must be, lest there be no human being left on the planet to appreciate them in 100 years or so and they instead become tombstones to civilization, such as it is.
2
@Robert As for the building's beauty, I already stated as much elsewhere. I am not a fan of redundancy.
NYC has simply become too expensive to build and in reality, live in. This is mostly due to political policies. Come on down to Florida where we are rational and won't punish you for being successful!
3
A wonderful addition to New York City's cultural life, and not a cappuccino in sight, unlike the overwhelming commercialism of the World Trade Center and Hudson Yards, and the upscale plans of the subway to further clog our subways with fancy, in-the-way retail. Why can't the subways invest in more subway art and aesthetics instead, which has a wonderfully calming and uplifting spirit, rather than add to the noise, congestion and general distraction of the already difficult subway experience.
4
Hideous, uninviting, forbidding.
13
This building is hideous and depressing. If this is what is currently described as among the "finest", our culture is in a sad state. No fresh air. Entire walls without sunshine. A RIDICULOUSLY tiny doorway. Yuk.
77
@Urban.Warrior How is a building that is covered in wood and full of windows overlooking a water way depressing ? Did you even look at the pictures ?
28
@Urban.Warrior
With that response I’m not sure you can call yourself an Urban Warrior. This is a beautiful, provocative urban library that will bring many visitors. Can you explain what about it is depressing?
11
I think this building is an arrogant and wasteful piece of work in every way. Looks like a Silicon Valley corporate headquarters with the windows as logo.
I’d switch the rooftop space for a comfortable green courtyard with park seating and a fountain that gives some soothing “white noise”. Courtyards extend the Summer and bring on the Spring a bit sooner.
And, they are not windy.
12
It is a public library. That it cost nearly $2,000/sq. ft. is an abomination even if it looks nice and is funtional. Where were the sensible people? American culture is so cooked!
10
This is an ugly block of a building, a monstrous carbuncle with a tiny door down at the bottom. It looks like the architect fell in lust with his computer assisted design program.
25
Nice. But, WOW, that is a lot of money for 22,000 sq. ft.
46
@Wenga $1,818/sf.
Can I build the next one for $1,750/sf?
1
@Wenga
This library is cheap. There's a home for sale in Del Mar, CA for $48M and it's only 5800 sqft and doesn't even look that nice. Talk about waste of money there.
Fine description of the wonders of the building. But what about the books, computers etc, which are the main reason for the building. Not a word in the article! What happened?
5
Only 10 years? Awesome.
6
Bound to be an excellent yoga studio one day, all Zen-like bambooey.
8
Good lord, this is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. Ruins the view from the windows as well.
7
Why can’t NY...? because it has an incompetent mayor and a kafka-esque bureaucracy.
5
LOL. and the dems want the govt to assume more(!) power over us and the economy. what could possibly go wrong? think of all the money we will save, when the govt does stuff instead of the private sector!
remember when obama said the govt would make (!) money if it took over the student loan business??
LOLOLOLOLOL. pass the koolaid please...
2
TL;DR — the planning, budgeting and selection processes followed by the city government get in the way of making a good, long term, capital improvement in this city.
“Pea counters”? I know what a bean counter is but this is a new one for me.
2
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
As I see it, this new library is rather ugly.
4
the b'klyn library at grand army plaza (aint bad)
2
@henry Gottlieb . I love that building.
1
All I can think of is the Derek Zoolander Center For Children Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too
5
How does the Hunters Point library in Queens compare with the new Central Library in Austin, Texas?
I suppose there is no point of arguing about taste.
To me,the building looks like it was imagined by a first year student of architecture to impress the professor.
Worse, as is true for many "inspired" buildings, it won't age well. You can see it having all of the appeal of the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. It also seemed "inspired" when it was created.
In fact, if I had time and inclination, I am sure I could go back into NYT archives and dig up a breathless article about it, upon its opening.
8
Question: "Why Can’t New York City Build More Gems Like This Queens Library?"
Answer: Because it favors the economically more privileged neighborhoods, like Hunters Point.
PS: The same goes for MTA subway stations: they're nicer in the "nicer" (read: "more expensive") neighborhoods; not so nice in the poorer neighborhoods.
5
I love Steven Holl projects - they are always so imaginative and discreet - their work in Finland is gorgeous. Why so expensive? Corruption is a lot of it and also the high price of doing any business in the city but corruption is there in spades.
2
I always read M. Kimmelman's essays. Much to learn. But the last paragraph of this column, "New York deserves an engaged and mindful government that grasps the virtues of good design and what it can do for communities" isn't built on a foundation that includes a 21 century good design consideration of the presence or absence of library features which are both climate resilient + climate friendly.
Given NYC has sited a $40 million tax payer-funded public amenity right on the edge of the East River, Mr. Kimmelman's omission does us a disservice
6
Seriously? Finest building determines use of $40M? Austin built a beautiful library after spending $140M (started with $90M). Meant for providing access to poor and those without resources. Ya.. parking is $10 for two hours. Mostly used by rich people to drink expensive coffee. Lies lies lies to get projects that don't serve the purpose - just want beautiful buildings.
4
Beautiful! How do you get to it on public transportation?
1
@Froon . You look at a subway map.
1
A long overdue piece on what plagues this city. However the lessons here would hopefully be learned by those who head up corporate design and construction in NYC as well. Those corporate architects are often pressured to hire outside architects/designers and contractors who submit the lowest bids resulting in wasted resources, time and money. One Solution: Hire the best outside construction mgr you can who in turn will hire the architect and subcontractors directly, lay out the budgets and especially those money-eating time schedules. Then make sure they comply.
1
I like minimalist architecture, so it's easy for me to love this building, with its blend of public and private spaces, warm interior spaces, beautiful light and well-planned views of the river, city and park. I hope the the Queens Library officials are thinking about the years to come, the need for repairs and all the ways this building might be used that they're not anticipating.
Salt Lake has a landmark downtown city library, a beautiful glass building that mixes retail shops with community spaces and a useful outdoor park. The building itself is suffering from constant leaks and disrepair.
The downtown library is the easiest place for the homeless to congregate, a much-needed warm space in the winter and an air-conditioned haven during our hot summers. It's no surprise that bathrooms are often monitored and county librarians have available and are trained to use Naloxone Rescue Kits.
My comment isn't to demonize the homeless. They use the libraries for safety and comfort. But all this means that this beautiful building often feels 'used hard and put away wet." The resources don't seem to exist to maintain it under these circumstances. I'm sure that the architect and city planners didn't plan for what's happened. I hope the Queens Library officials are smarter.
4
@Doug Hein I have been in the SLC downtown library and wondered if it had the kind of problems we have in libraries in midtown Manhattan and it certainly sounds like it does.
It is very frustrating here, as resources aren't being devoted to addressing the intense needs of the people who take up so many of the library's seats for such long periods. And in the meantime, the library is purchasing fewer and fewer books and DVDs. What they ARE spending money on isn't 100% clear to me.
One of the problems with libraries, I think, is that some, especially @NYPL, which is actually a private charity that gets contributions from NYC, have boards filled with people who don't really use public libraries themselves. They have plenty of money to buy all the books and streaming services they want and have no need for a public library, other than perhaps to enhance their "reputations" and move up in "society."
1
One of the problems with the US is that we are hung up on budgets and efficiency. We don’t have good design in our blood like the Europeans. Well-designed public gathering spaces are essential to communities. They refresh and inspire the collective soul. Without them, adults sigh with nostalgia and kids learn, sadly, that life is just about counting peas.
8
@Leslie, I am a former European who disagrees with you. Our American public buildings are incomparably better than the European ones with a few exceptions such as airports. In particular, our public libraries leave the rest of the world in the dust. Well, I am not referring to NYC but the the flyover country where most of us (love to) live.
4
What a glorious public building! I am so glad that the people of Queens will all get to enjoy the stunning view and read, relax and learn in such a beautiful public library. I'm just sad I can't use it myself; we had to leave LIC three years ago because "the rents were too dam high".
4
This Mayor, as exemplified in all he touches, simply fails to lead!
NYCHA, G&T, subway, the list is endless.
3
Steven Holl is a great architect.
1
The inside is beautiful, the outside is awful.
56
Perhaps in 100 years this building will be considered an architectural treasure, but I cannot for the life of my see why. It's hideous—weird, uninviting, cold, and utterly lacking any ornamentation.
70
@James
How can a building filled with beautiful spaces, natural wood, lots of sunshine and beautiful views be labeled cold and uninviting?
6
@James
"Doctors bury their mistakes and architects plant ivy"
A lot of ivy might help this building in fifty years,
5
When writing about the cost of any building, it is necessary to discuss the role of the architect, which Kimmelman doesn't do.
A key factor about the cost of this project is that designs by architect Steven Holl, while imaginative and notable, are often difficult to build, notorious for running far past the client's original resources, and then greatly over budget when they are built.
79
In the meantime, an ugly and meaningless instagram "monument" like the "vessel" in Hudson Yards gets built very quickly.
57
@Joker
Oh, Hudson Yards is even worse! than Vessel.. Property tax abatements for 20 years on the apts. and quite possible eligible for 500K visas (how many of those visas are available annually?) . People have also complained that there needed to have been another entrance to that terribly deep subway -- before the Times Square stop.
3
@Joker private vs public construction costs. NYCEDC is not a public entity.
It’s beautiful. Too bad future flooding from global warming will ruin it.
3
What abut, new technolgies which are saving energy and reduce the carbon footprint of this building? Solar panels, new heating and water conserving? I do not see and hear anything of those in this building...
Instead of praising the architectual art and function I am more like a Bauhaus kind of girl: function and sustainbility should go hand in hand with the the new revitalisation of New Yorks public buildings. Longlivety should be also a key....only buildings which are built with quality and for sight to the future are the real "green buildings".
120
@Karen
Bauhaus girl, how do you feel about the destruction of the Donnell library (because $48 million to renovate it would have been "prohibitive"), in a deal for the city that profited Bloomberg's real estate friends?
Or, speaking of Bauhaus, the destruction of Walter Gropius' MOMA across the street?
13
@Karen YES! Glad you wrote about Kimmelman's oversight on any mention of the library's carbon footprint. Also missing is any consideration of what, if anything, will protect this $40 million tax payer investment on the edge of the East River from climate-change linked flood damage. Or what you call "function +sustainability". Keep writing!
19
@Karen Many public buildings do not even address such issues due to cost. The first thing to go is any energy saving items like solar panels, etc. This just happened to a new library/senior center being built in my community. It is in a perfect spot for solar panels - no trees and huge roof area. But to make it a LEED building just cost too much.
4
Apparently in order to appear as original geniuses worth high fees architects these days feel they need to come up with designs so completely different from anything that ever existed before—no matter how ugly, expensive and impractical—and rely on it being so flabbergasting that people won't see the emperor is totally bereft of clothes.
The only ones salivating over this prime example should be local graffiti artists.
12
Beautifully detailed and crafted, but isn’t it’s exterior graphics a wee bit silly?
2
Leaving aside whether the building is beautiful or not, won't all that direct light damage books and fade their spines?
6
John Q. Public reactions to contemporary architecture are always a great read. Too bad that newspapers didn't have comment sections in the old days when, say, the horrid ugly Eiffel Tower was just finished or the terribly wasteful cathedral at Chartres, what with all those poor people and all. Wonder what the comment sections then would have looked like.
1
John Q. Public reactions to contemporary architecture are always a great read. Too bad that newspapers didn't have comment sections in the old days when, say, the horrid ugly Eiffel Tower was just finished or the terribly wasteful cathedral at Chartres, what with all those poor people and all. Wonder what the comment sections then would have looked like.
1
After 10 years and $40 million (1800 sq ft) do they have money to buy books?
2
Please tell me it is elevated so it’s not underwater during the next storm.
4
Looking at some of the photos, it appears that there is something of a dearth of actual books on the shelves. I suppose that what matters to an architectural critic has little or no intersection with the functional purpose of a library.
3
Not every new starchitect building has to look like it's crumpled aluminum foil or like it has some deforming disease. This beautiful building proves that.
5
Thank goodness that NYC is not building more structures like that one. It is hideous.
9
The “finest” building of the century? That’s a stretch.
7
I love libraries. I have three wonderful libraries within a 20 minute drive of my home. But how can a city have wonderful new libraries and still have independent bookstores? All of the virtues of the independent bookstores appear to be also included in the public funded library. As to selling books, my nearby libraries all have permanent book sale rooms.
Somebody forgot to order shades for those big west facing windows. Did anyone sit by them on a sunny afternoon and try to read with the Sun blasting in there?
4
@D.S.
I’m sure the book covers and or bindings appreciate the warm sun. I know my sofa did as its color faded.
3
@D.S. There are shades.
It is beautiful and promotes a comfortable reading environment unfortunately technology and progress is making such big libraries absolute. Let’s hope such building can with time transformed into something, like performing arts, that the community will more fully use.
I don't understand all the hemming and hawing about the price. It looks like a lovely $40 million building to me, so I'd say they got their money's worth. There are lots worse ways to spend such amounts. Nobody bats an eye at a $40 million aircraft.
However, the fact that there are so many steps is just inexcusable. It excludes so many people. That alone should have doomed the design.
5
Answer to the question in the title: Because the money, time, and other resources would be better spent building apartments people can actually afford and extending library hours and collections , both of which matter more than one critic's idea of a gorgeous or impressive building design (something that is, after all, in the eye of the beholder. I find that building unattractive and am guessing it will look much worse after a decade of NYC soot has clung to its exterior walls.)
12
@Reader a typical "comfort station", or public restroom by common name, costs around 8 million dollars. Something like this could be built for under one hundred thousand but because of the cities bureaucracy and procurement process the cost skyrockets. I think that's the point of this article.
2
Just another structure and enterprise that puts independent book stores out of business. My local library has a permanent book sale room.
3
@Shamrock seriously? it's a library.
4
Public process is time, and time is money. Construction cost escalation likely accounted for half the cost.
6
There are many comments on the role of libraries and architecture but one thing I hope we can all agree on is there is no excuse for $40 million and 10 years to build. No accountability breeds corruption and failure and our city has plenty of both.
26
As a Californian, I know little about your politics, but when I visit my brother in Queens I will want to have a look at your library. Gorgeous, clean, public architecture.
14
It won't be clean for long? And one might question how "clean" it was to spend $40M on a fancy design when there are NYC children going homeless.
6
Clean lines, obviously. And I purposely dropped the politics out of it "reader."
It’s a beautiful building, reminiscent of playful, unusual 20th-century architectural wonders around the world. I’m happy it will be a new attraction in LIC. And as for the people asking why physical libraries should exist at all in the era of the Internet—what a sad question. Many of us still enjoy reading printed books just fine, thank you, alongside ebooks. Not everyone can afford Internet access or access to e-texts outside of the public domain, and not everyone enjoys reading on screens. I certainly vastly prefer reading the printed word, when given the choice. In an age when people have info at the fingertips but clearly don’t use it, I think supporting libraries (and indie bookstores, too, rather than monoliths like Amazon) is more important than ever. I want people—tourists and New Yorkers alike—to have and remember the special beauty there is in smelling an old book as it opens, sitting down, and being transported elsewhere. I want them, too, to remember that NYC is a city with incredible architectural history—and this is simply a part of that century-long movement of innovation. Can’t wait to check this library out when it opens!
12
@Gabby I worked in university libraries for many years. I loved the feel of the impressions left by real printing. However, ebooks give me a choice in print face and are small enough to carry in my purse. The print size became more important as my eyes aged with me. And if you love long books, ebooks are a back saver.
1
As maddening as it is to build a City-funded project and how easy it is to mock the many obstacles that the City places in the way of getting a project funded, approved and built, it is important to remember that each obstacle is a result of a previous failure in the private sector: Grantees mismanaging funds, architects issuing unbuildable specifications, contractors cutting corners, billing inflated costs, or simply not performing, etc. The City is full of people who, in fact, want to assist in creating great buildings, and many architects like Mr. McVoy recognize their efforts and rightfully defend them.
5
Print books must never be allowed to die.
However...
Libraries offer more than print books. I utilize my local library to hear lectures, get help with geneology research, secure discounts for local theatre, etc. Libraries also offer ESL classes, toddler reading circle time, and many other activities.
Libraries are essential to the community. A beautiful design helps to entice the public to come inside and further their learning.
32
@Marathoner
Totally agree. Independent bookstores are done. All of its virtues are paid for in the public library.
1
40 million dollars. Just let that sink in. Forty. Million. Dollars. For a library. I love libraries. I love books. But I love schools, subways, and healthcare even more. $40 million. Why can't NY build more buildings like this.... The mind boggles.
4
Love all the people on this response thread who have fully-formed negative opinions about the building before actually visiting it. The equivalent would be reading the Cliff notes of a great book and expounding on it. Maybe take the time to do more than look at a few photos of a building? There’s great contemporary architecture and there’s terrible contemporary architecture. Sensitize yourselves to the differences.
5
There is another problem with the libraries, in that they are now being viewed as nothing more than real estate holdings to be used to advance political agendas.
De Blasio made housing a policy priority; however, everyone also knows that for various reasons his policy has mostly failed. (Math is math, and his was waaay off.) In an attempt to find cheap land on which to maybe pull off some affordable housing, the library branches are ripe candidates.
And so a busy branch like Inwood, sorely in need of renovation and repair, is instead getting bulldozed so that the city can cram a 14 story building on top of it, with a replacement library at the bottom. This required an acrobatic upzoning which infuriated the neighborhood (which is 6 story buildings all around the branch) and will require many years of construction. The new branch may end up perfectly fine looking and similar in size, but rather than be renovated quickly with the library design paramount as in Hunters Point, it will be a secondary tenant in the base of the apartment building. If that building ever gets built by the private partner the city is seeking.
2
The NY Times reviewer follows the usual path: does it photograph well? See any humans in the photos? Is the furniture comfortable or good to look at? Is there really some value in primping the side nobody sees - facing the river?
And as for the library management, browsing the stacks holding the motley collection of items at your local branch makes little sense in an age when books are found and reserved in the web.
4
@Ben
... and I hope the building inspectors don't notice the all the sets of hazardous stairs with no handrails. (Gosh, handrails are so ugly in photographs.)
5
It is a beautiful building, but what do Libraries actually do? Are they make workplaces for aging Librarians? A four year old can hold in the palm of their hand all the info in all the Libraries in the World. How fondly I remember the stacks, the card catalogue searches, the search for the books, the pile I checked out to write a paper and other joys of the stacks that were places for social interactions. It was always a nice place to waste a few hrs. So now communities are vying for how much money they can spend on the "greatly needed" but empty facilities. In support of that position, there was not one person in all the pretty photos in this article.
1
@bahcomNot sure when you visited a library most recently, but I have never once found any branch of my city's library empty or anywhere near empty. There are people there using wi fi, there are people looking for good books, there are people attending readings by high-profile writers, meetings of book clubs, information meetings or presentations on topics that include retirement planning ,financial planning, job searching and interviews. There are people reading newspapers or sitting and watching as a friendly librarian reads stories to a group of children. Whatever the advances in technology since we were children, these libraries remain essential and much-loved community spaces.
81
@Balcony Bill
I love libraries that have all of the activities that you mention. I’m glad I didn’t invest in an independent bookstore.
@bahcom The car catalog still exists; it is now an online public access catalog (OPAC) which means you can search library resources not just from the library, but remotely. This means you can take a look at resources that interest you, or that you need prior to coming in the actual library.
And no, contrary to your belief, a four year old can't hold all the information in all the libraries in the work in the palm of their hand. You would be surprised to learn the large volume of materials that people want/need and are behind a paywall or are not even available online. Google does not have everything.
3
Beautifully written, with clear passion and love for this great city and all it can become for its citizens, but with a razor sharp critique of NYC’s onerous rules and the poisonous influence of the neoliberal and the crony on public projects. Thank you for this. I cannot wait to experience this remarkable, joyous new community treasure.
10
As beautiful as this building appears(longtime in coming and much needed) it is not accessibility friendly for the disabled, the elderly and those with low vision; the exterior is simply an obstacle course. I commend the multiple use of natural light, but much of the building is a thoughtless compendium of attacks on disability in which 1% additional spending on the building would have solved, but the malevolent process of negation and negotiation with city agencies and especially contractors, excluded. It costs almost nothing to make a moral statement of inclusion. But this building does not.
9
@King of clouts Just a a notes ; the ARCHITECTS PLANS ARE ON FILE AT THE NYC DEPT OF CONSTRUCTION. There is a dearth of of persistence in solving the problems of accessibility within the building. STAIRS! STAIRS AND MORE STAIRS. And we will throw in an occasional elevator. Circular and regenerative movement is impossible. A design in its initial conception was a decade behind the time and now with its it completion it is basically unusable for an important part of the citizenry
3
At least it gets your attention—more than I can say about most libraries at a time when smart phones seem to be the only thing getting most people’s attention.
2
With the amount of property taxes the city collects, there should be planning and building beautiful public buildings left and right.
How come that there is no children’s hospital in Brooklyn?
5
@F R
Unions and nimbys that’s why
2
Inside is OK. The outside not so much.
With glass from Spain and lots of Bamboo, I am guessing that the supply chain carbon footprint was not a consideration.
10
A "gem"? Not to me. Buildings with lesions don't look so good.
5
I just have to wonder if all that sunlight is going to damage the books? Hopefully, that Spanish glass either has UV filter in it or applied to it.
3
All those cascading staircases brings to mind the staircase in the fiasco known as The New Academic Building (NAB) at the Cooper Union.
This was built at the site of the old Abram Hewitt building on Cooper Square, a crouching, low 2 story hulk that was supposed to be built higher in its time but the school ran out of money.
Rather than build on the original plan, a starchitect with marketing skills that exceeded common sense persuaded the school board to build a new building at about $1000 a sq ft (that’s more than most luxury hotels, yet this was a school that prides itself on frugality). It’s central feature: a cascading stairwell that dominates the center of 5 stories of the school. The architect made the rather conceited philosophical claim that this stairwell was to be viewed as a public commons for students in this urban campus to meet. In reality, the space is cold, uninviting, and downright scary for anyone with vertigo who is at the top looking down. It amazes me that building codes allowed this to fly at all, because if you slipped and fell at the top, there’s nothing stopping you for over 100 steps.
I lived across the street on the top floor of The Village Voice building and I watched this thing as it was being built. I wondered at the time if I was witnessing the construction of the school’s tombstone, and sure enough, the NAB led directly to the school’s financial troubles and its revocation if its core mission 150 years tuition free admissions policy.
38
@unreceivedogma
Not the only school to get into trouble because of poor fiduciary oversight.
6
The comments section, is as to be expected, cluttered with people complaining about the aesthetic of modern architecture. I'm not even going to bother pushing back against that--fine, don't like minimalism. It's your prerogative. But millions love it.
As to those carping about "unused space on the taxpayer dollar", or "too many blind spots"--open space is a gift in a cluttered, crowded metropolis. It's to be treasured and enjoyed, not dismissed. As for the blind spots--great! I don't want to be overseen and watched and supervised my entire visit. That's called privacy. Treasure it.
I realize no large public project is going to achieve a consensus, but people should go to it, walk around it, browse its stacks before denigrating it. Michael Kimmelman is quite right. This library is special and should be treasured.
169
@Laurence Bachmann
Hurray! Thank you!
6
@Laurence Bachmann
Not all modern architecture is ugly, but this certainly is pedestrian. Frank Gehry's works tend to be truly ugly.
8
@Laurence Bachmann
Laurence, I’m a painter and sculptor. It is usually (not always) wearisome when architects try their hand at sculpture or painting. I can only howl to the moon, “please stay in your lane”. From Corbu’s painting to this building (as sculpture) it is painful to watch. And sadly, buildings last a long time.
5
It's important to have great architects design buildings dedicated to learning and aspiration because it shows what a society values.
I was recently in Mexico City and stopped by the Biblioteca Vasconcelos - a striking building with suspended bookshelves in a vast atrium space. It's a tourist attraction in itself. Like NYC, Mexico City has its share of ugly modern sprawl, but the government there saw fit to aim higher and develop a building of real distinction.
32
The Sunday 8/18 Travel section featured "Check this out: Libraries as tourist attractions." The Calgary library is one of the seven described. Might be interesting for readers of Kimmelman's article. Yes, libraries are changing, perhaps hard for those whose love of them dates back more than half a century. But such is life. I for one am putting off a trip to Norway until the new Oslo library is finished.
8
@Leslie
I thought of that piece too Leslie. It was special. I'm pleased NYC might have created something worthy of it.
1
I have fond memories of my local Queens Public Library branch.
Many, many magazines and books of fiction that I could never afford growing up were made available to me and it was enriching. All cramped into a small space that was as large as a typical McDonald's.
It's great to see that they're (still) very efficient and cost-conscious.
4
I’ve watched this building go up since the beginning and thought the design looked awful. Cold and modern, a cement box by a beautiful river. But I’m traditional and prefer warmer and more inviting design. I’ll be interested to see the inside but my first thought was that there are way too many stairs.
8
My wife and I just visited the new library in Calgary, Alberta, and it was spectacular. We asked, “Why can’t a great library like this be built in New York?
I guess it has...
12
A few thoughts:
What a contrast between a warm and inviting interior and a banal and unattractive exterior. Also, when viewed within its surrounding context, the building simply looks out of place.
It seems like there are an awful lot of stairs. Where are the ramps and elevators for parents with strollers, people with wheelchairs, older folks, and anyone else in need of a lift?
I love Spain and I'm sure that Spanish glaziers do exceptional work, but why are we buying Spanish glass? Perhaps NYC taxpayer money should support local or national businesses (to say nothing of the carbon footprint of transporting that glass across an ocean).
Given its location, it will be interesting to see how this building will withstand global warming (i.e. rising sea levels, flooding, etc.). How have such concerns been factored into the design?
Just for comparison's sake, it took 1 year and 45 days to build the Empire State Building. Just saying...
38
At 82 feet high this library was being constructed at the speed of snail. Meanwhile, just next door to this tiny structure, glass filled skyscrapers were being built from the ground up in less time. How does the city allow such incompetence to continue construction after construction is beyond me.
8
According to some acquaintances who live in the glass towers that keep shooting up like weeds, they are very poorly constructed. It’s great for the current tenants bc it’s all brand new, but word on the street has it that none of it is durable or will age well (as in 2 or 3 years it’s already shabby and in need of large scale repairs to plumbing and windows etc.)
Hopefully the price tag of the library reflects lasting construction.
22
@Leo I watched from one tower in Manhattan other towers being built. The process was straightforward and repetitive. This library looks like its construction was much more complicated.
1
It maybe a beautiful building, but it is not practical as a library. There are too many blind spots that the staff can't see. Speaking of staff, some of the money should have gone to making sure the Queens Public Library could adequately staff this new building, as well as it's existing locations. Without staff, books, DVDs etc, it's just a building, not a library.
25
It’s a beautiful building but I have some questions:
- Is this form over function? A library is for housing books. Look at all that wasted space, at taxpayer expense. Couldn’t a beautiful building have been designed that uses space (and energy) more efficiently? Better the dollars spent on affordable housing, even housing that offends this critic’s aesthetic sensibilities?
- we are well into the digital era. I visit my “library” online. Will brick and mortar libraries be an anachronism, sooner rather than later?
Yes it’s a nice building. At what cost, and is it even necessary?
7
As someone who makes things for a living (sculpture, furniture, architectural items) I often have two opposing sentiments after I price something: 1) "Wow, that a lot of money" and 2) "How can I make this for so little money?" There is so much that goes into making a piece of furniture, let alone an entire building. That said, Steven Holl did our Institute for Contemporary Art building here in Richmond, which also cost around 40 million, and my main critique was the lack of quality materials on the interiors. He was pushing the design envelope a bit and I think most of the money went into complications related to that.
6
Innovative design and quality materials cost money! I am sure that this building will be treasured by the residents of this Queens neighborhood in time. Now it is the job of the New York Public Library to fill the library with books, magazines, CDs, videos and the like as well as offer the public programs that trigger the imagination of its users. I am sure if called upon the residents of this neighborhood will step up to the plate and help make this happen.
6
This library is part of the Queens Public Library, not New York Public.
10
Meanwhile, back at the main library on 5th and 42nd, the powers that be there want to turn the place into a tourist destination with food and an event space. They still haven't figured out how to get rid of all those pesky books yet.
192
@David Hah! Love it.
5
@David
To be fair, the Queens Library and the Brooklyn Library are different systems than the NYPL, which covers the Bronx, Manhattan and SI. You need separate library cards for the former, and I believe only Queens residents can get a QPL card.
4
Your sentiment about the main library is naive and outdated. What's wrong with expanding and updating the library to include event and education spaces? What's wrong with making it a tourist destination? Libraries around the world are reinventing themselves for the digital age where printed book reading has declined. That doesn't mean humans have given up on literacy. It's narrow minded and silly to make the assumption that libraries are "selling out" because they have the sense to modernize themselves.
I am an architect and I once was a project manager for the City of New York, working on capital projects including several Queens Library branches. Such libraries are re-imagining their roles to become technological, multi-functional spaces that serve diverse community needs. The 42nd library expansion project was intended to do just that. A visionary architect was recruited and the proposed design was elegant. The NYPL board fully supported the project.
Then came a disinformation campaign that smeared the project and raised a lot of nonsense about how the library was getting rid of all its books and moving them to storage. Perhaps people don't know that many of those books already are in storage. The project was squashed because of misinformation and naivete and the city lost what could have been a new architectural gem.
5
I've learned to hate these new building designs. They are all about how flighty and interesting the shape is but with little concern how they do their job. It's all about the architect and the "so called" art and not how it does its job.
I went to a "new" library in downtown Silver Spring a few years ago and almost couldn't find the books. There were all these empty spaces, open corridors all set back from the glass walls with blinding, rather than soothing, sunlight. But it was hard and distracting to find books and places to look them over.
Just last week the new Wheaton library finally opened and, again, it feels like a giant government structure with too many things all spread out and it has an empty inside the machine feeling.
One of the biggest disasters is Cooper Union's "new" Academic Building which is ugly on the outside and cavernous and empty feeling on the inside. And those stairs in the center lobby. Ugh! And all it cost was enough to basically bankrupt the school. But talk about form over function. Yuk!
30
@MzF
"They are all about how flighty and interesting the shape is but with little concern how they do their job"
Well, there you have it. At least since the 1970's this garbage has been forced down the throats of anyone attending any design school. It's the "triumph" of "modernism:" Where form is of the utmost importance and how the building is supposed to function is secondary, if it is considered at all.
4
The relatively new Donnell library in Manhattan also has a very inviting design and is a lovely place to read, or work on one of the computers, or study in one of the carrels.
What is missing are the books. The books and CDs are attractively placed, but there are not a lot of them. It is very easy to order material, but gone is the joy of wandering through the stacks. I love this library, but in the beautiful design something has been lost.
I know books are going the way of the dodo and I am an old curmudgeon, but I think something is lost in our endlessly curated experiences.
102
The ever growing amount of new books and DVDs is a challenge to any physical space. If you search the library system catalog, many materials are stored offsite or spread among different locations but can be requested in advance.
10
Yes, that's why many people including myself don't bother going to the library anymore.
3
@Martha As a librarian, this comment (which many library patrons make) crack me up to no end. If the library is continuing to acquire books and other materials, and never gets rid of any, don't you think they are going to eventually run out of space? The only alternative to offsite storage is to weed and eliminate old books and materials so that new ones can replace the materials currently on the shelves. Is this what you want?
8
Contractors get used to a particular equation. Architects know it. They stick to it using familiar tools and materials and we get stuck with glass towers.
See: 2 Columbus Circle.
9
Thank you for this thoughtful and spot-on review.
13
All stairs. I hope there’s an elevator.
24
@David J: by making it so it REQUIRES elevators -- probably MULTIPLE elevators! the poor staff! -- the architect raised the cost of the construction dramatically, and elevators become a maintenance problem down the road, years later.
All the new libraries in my area -- which are full of amenities and high tech and tons of computers! -- are ONE STORY BUILDINGS, totally handicapped accessible.
The one in my immediate area was scandalously expensive…$12 million.
9
@Concerned Citizen, I was in a building designed by I.M Pei. No closets. Form over function.
4
I think the interior design and finish is strikingly attractive and deceptively inviting. I say deceptive because every seating surface, both movable and fixed, is hard and unyielding with either no back support whatsoever or non-ergonomically shaped backs. The sharp corners of the rectangular tables are a hazard sure to cause many minor injuries.
I like the exterior except for the entry door area. The tiny entry door into this giant concrete box looks like it was an afterthought, almost overlooked and added in a rush at the last minute.
17
@Errol Perhaps the small door is something that can be barricaded for the next super storm when the waters rise.
3
A beautiful ( matter of opinion) building is always welcome but the real issue is the quality of the Library as an educational and enlightening resource for the community- it makes me sad to see so much emphasis placed on the physical structure and so little or no emphasis placed on the books in the library and the resources offered to the community . We can put up less expensive buildings and improve the actual library which is comprised of books, magazines , even classes and educational programs offered to the public.
45
@old lady cook
I understand your perspective, but let me counter by saying that for too long in America we have ignored the structure for the programming within the structure. We allow businesses to build the cheapest, ugliest structure possible in order to extract the maximum value out of customers. People react against a MacDonalds or other chain store coming to ruin a classic old city/country square, when they should ignore what's inside and simply make sure that the building created will be beautiful and useful for long after the chain-store has closed up.
That is: the built environment means more to everyone than the individual services currently occupying the environment.
17
Stunning. Restrained but wild. Totally original.
30
It's not clear to me why neighborhood branch libraries need to be palaces designed by starchitects. That money should be going to essential needs like the subway and school construction. I like the design, but no, this does not need to be replicated citywide.
46
If ever there were a public space that should be beautiful and inviting, it’s a library. I’d like to see public schools built to inspire joy, pride, and delight too. Money well spent.
18
@Osito: libraries are about "what is on the INSIDE".
It wouldn't matter if it was a very plain building, or even a series of Quonset huts….it's the BOOKS and media that matter.
This new library has some great views (though ANY building on this lot would have claimed great views) and as someone else said, a kind of "mod 70's" look that is very stylish (again)….but $40 million is excessive beyond belief.
You could have built an attractive, serviceable building for $10 million, then had $30 million leftover for books and services!
6
@Concerned Citizen
To state the design does not matter is absolutely not true. Across the city, community members say it is obvious they are not valued members of society when the public facilities that are meant to serve them look awful. Nicely designed facilities communicate respect to those using them. Libraries are also extensively used by lower income people and new immigrants. They are not just about books, they are gathering places.
5
Egotistical and non-user-friendly would be two excellent answers to the question the title poses. Drearily of its time would be another. There are buildings that are in some way intrinsically beautiful and striking. This isn’t one of them.
18
I live nearby and the neighborhood that surrounds it and its architecture is far from “ dreary.” Hunters Point and the park that the library faces are one of my favorite areas of NYC.
16
Very 1970s looking "modern" design, with daring window cut-outs. So atonal, so blah. And so expensive.
24
@SF
Could not disagree more.
Once a building is erected, it will typically be around for decades. Kudos to the Bloomberg administration for wanting to create places of beauty.
14
The photos are spectacular and I look forward to visiting this library.
The materials used have longevity for the crowds that will gather, the thought of views, seating and possibilities are there. Yes, I will visit here.
It is sad the nonsense of building and choosing cheap bids that go nowhere other than waste precious fund, but alas it will open!
11
“Chairs at the adult desks are by Jean Prouvé. They’re by Aalto in the big, two-story children’s wing,”.
I have no idea who these designers are, but the fact that there are chair designers for a publicly funded building might be a bit excessive, no? Chairs in a library should be comfortable and durable considering the use they will get. I’m all for architecturally interesting public buildings, but not for disregard of taxpayers money. Looks like a beautiful building!
29
@MonroeMD
well designed elements which cost a little bit more, usually work better and last longer requiring less maintenance than the least expensive facsimile.
dollar store mentality is not what you want for infrastructure and public spaces. good design is done by designers. you get what you (specify and) pay for.
18
Jerry: Nonsense. There are a gazillion superb chairs on the market without the need to pay some famous designer to design a new one. And the best chairs are built for sitting, not built to be cute.
8
@polymath
Maybe, but not for much less and good design is meant to inspire. I think that the public deserves beauty and good design, especially for children in places that will last for generations.
Considering its backdrop, "the growing apartment towers in Hunters Point", one wonders the equity, or rather lack of, equity to the local community. Was it built to satisfy the gentrifying hordes while the locals in this and other areas suffered without? This isn't an accusation since I simply don't know the full history, but one can see how the affluent get resources while our poorer suffer. This is a long-standing issue, before our current administration, although de Blasio has made some strides against our inequality.
4
it would be a lot cooler if govt funding could be allocated by digital tokens from citizens through a gofundme type interface. our government was entangled with bureaucracy because we lacked a way to hear everyone's voice. today, technology has stripped a lot of bureaucracy's utility. we need to rethink the way we govern ourselves.
1
What a beautiful paean to the value of architects and to enlightened critiques... Thank you Michael, Steven & company.
And thank you, too, for incisively and boldly pointing out the routine scapegoating of architects for the ills of construction, cost or scheduling that are more likely to be the result of actions — or inaction — of those scornfully shaking their fingers.
Uplifting architecture, writing and insights!
75
Libraries are THE point of entry for many of the city's newest residents. Branch libraries bring good architecture into our city's neighborhoods and introduce kids to the joy of reading and good design. Other attractive branch libraries I've seen recently: Mariner's Harbor and Stapleton (Staten Island), High Bridge (Bronx), Elmhurst (Queens), and Washington Heights (Manhattan).
37
Seriously why does it take 10 years to build a library. Has anyone seen the cost estimates for Second Avenue subway phase two? THIS IS WHY THERE IS NOT ENOUGH AFFORDABLE HOUSING - ALL OUR MONEY IS WASTED ON OVERBUDGET PROJECTS.
32
Seems like a beautiful amenity for all those wealthy people moving into those million dollar plus apartments in western Long Island City. Once there were enough 'people who count' (rich and light skinned), the money was spent and the library built. Got it! Now, can we give them a tax cut too? Wait, they probably already get an abatement on real estate taxes... But why stop with one tax cut?
49
@Simon Li
But, Simon. You gotta look at it this way: rich people need a place to live, too, and it can't be easy, being rich in a city that's so expensive. And when you think of how the scale of these overpriced apartments compels the rich to jettison countless lineal feet of their own literary possessions, don't they deserve a neighborhood repository? Why, one almost can't quantify the mercies of a neighborhood resource like this.
5
You don’t have to live in those buildings to go there. There are public housing projects and public schools within 10 minutes walk, which is less than I had to walk to my local branch where I spent countless hours as a kid.
20
@Simon Li
It is also a beautiful amenity for the poor and working class people who live in nearby areas of western Queens. It's the Publlc Library.
10
I prefer the warm interior, because then you don't have to look at the uninspired exterior, which betrays no real thought. I wonder how long the deliberations took as to where to place the amorphous windows?
8
It's hard to judge a building I haven't been inside, but something strikes me as odd about this one, at least from the pictures: it seems mobile unfriendly. The first photo showing "The canyon-like lobby entrance of Hunters Point Community Library" has a window on top of a landing of stairs--obviously inaccessible to those who use wheelchairs. The bleacher seats in the children's wing likewise don't show wheelchair access. As another reader noted, it it a building that challenges the challenged.
71
Certainly suppresses none of the play of inquiry, and banishes much of the sombre tone of authority. What do you call a building that captures the seductiveness of knowledge with the refreshing spirit of criticism? Enabling.
7
I spent my youth in the 50's and 60's in my local branch of the Queens Borough Public Library. I remember the smell, look and feel of the card catalogue like it was yesterday. In it's own way that card catalogue was our first search engine; it taught us to think logically and it still drives the way I put words into my computer search engine. I'm very pleased that this wonderful new library is in my native Queens.
139
Imagine, all our infrastructure is being built by the lowest bidder.
109
@JB Thank God government contracting does go to the lowest bidder, because when it doesn't, 99.99% of the time corruption and bribery are the reasons it didn't.
3
@JB
At $40,000,000 do you think that mattered in this case?
3
Cool building. But almost every photo includes a cascade of steps. How do the elderly, people in wheelchairs or kids in strollers experience the building (via elevator, I guess)?
122
@Michael Di Pasquale: I thought that too. My local library system just got rid of some lovely older libraries SOLELY to build new, one story handicapped-accessible libraries. They have ramps, and handicapped bathrooms and so on.
Why did THIS $40 million library go in the exact opposite direction -- steps IN BETWEEN the stacks?
It's not just the disabled, but elderly who would find this a nightmare.
BTW: the brand new (handicapped accessible) library in my area was considered a massive overspend.....at $12 million.
32
@Michael Di Pasquale
Looks like you answered your own question! ;)
3
@Nicolas
Yes, I did....the point being that the "answer" is not sufficient.
Relegating elderly library users and people in wheelchairs and strollers to an elevator detracts from the success of the building's design: one experience for able-bodied folks, another experience for the others.
22
Its good to build libraries. Public construction is always fraught with issues, but not always. Somehow buying glass from Spain and bamboo for wood doesn’t appear to be a smart thing when there are glass and wood products here in the US. Architects never learn.
43
@David DeFilippo That you believe the Architect has any control on where the glass is shipped from proves you do not understand how construction works.
The Architect specifies glass meeting certain parameters: size, insulation, transparency, etc. They need to do it this way - especially on public projects - to ensure it can bid fairly. (Same story for any other building material).
The Contractor then goes shopping, and 9 times out of 10, buys the cheapest possible option that approximates the Architect's specifications. Doesn't matter if it's from Spain and a strike is about to go on. If they can save a dollar on it, it's more profit for them.
And then the story of this article happens. Inept builders get prestigious city contracts when they lack the experience or track record. Project goes over budget. We the tax payers foot the bill. City Hall shrugs and acts like nothing can be done about this. The Architect gets 100% of the blame by internet commentators who don't know what they're talking about and never learn.
166
@David DeFilippo. We need to get serious about preserving our forests. Bamboo grows so fast it’s virtually an invasive species if planted in the wrong place. It’s very sustainable as a construction material. Not sure how much is grown here in the States for harvest but it obviously can be.
1
The reason they can’t it’s because New York City is a cultural desert.
1
@Anthony Williams - A cultural desert? It might depend on your definition of culture, but a search of "cultural capitals cities" would find numerous lists, all of which would list New York as one of the top cities for culture, not just nationally, but internationally.
Most weekends I visit a museum, and we often dine at fabulous restaurants, attend concerts at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, take long walks to explore the ever-changing architecture, as well as stride through the Central Park. There is a whole world of NYC I don't partake of, which runs the cultural range, from high to low, from new to old. What aspect of culture does NYC not have?
34
@Anthony Williams
Have you ever been to NYC? Or do you know the meaning of culture. NYC is at the top of the world in culture. There's no place in the world that is as cultured as NYC, including Paris. Once, when I was living in NYC, two French friends came to visit. I told them I would spend the day taking them to the art museums. They got offended, "we are French," they blurted arrogantly. I said: "I don't care. You're going to go anyway." Being French with exquisite manners, they went along. At the end of the day, the told me repeatedly, "Thank you, thank you for forcing us to go." They went back to Europe with a new sense of humility. Of course, NYC is not as great as it used to be before developers ruined it with those eyesore glass skyscrapers typical of third world countries that want to be Western and first world. But libraries are always welcomed as a way to underline the importance of print. And this one is a great contribution.
38
@Anthony Williams. Yes, that’s exactly what NYC is known for....it’s lack of culture.
3
Because it took $40 million and a decade.
16
$40 million buys a lot of media, pays for helpful staff, increases open hours. Public libraries should serve all the people not the architectural elite.
32
@NYCSANDI: you took the words out of my mouth.
This building has pretty views, but it would have had that even if it were a conventional (cheaper) building.
Nothing on the interior in terms of design or finishes is very impressive.
How about a more ordinary building, save $30 million and spend it on books and programs for poor kids?
9