The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, designed in collaboration with Beyer Blinder Belle, transforms a historic building on Fifth Avenue
Dutch architecture practice Mecanoo and US firm Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners have completed the The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library in New York City, within the 1914 shell and steel frame of the Mid-Manhattan Library on Fifth Avenue which it replaces. The library was and remains the largest circulating branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL).
The 16,722 sq m renovated building is topped with an eye-catching angular roof – alongside a roof garden – which Mecanoo principal Francine Houben calls the ‘Wizard Hat’. ‘Libraries are the most important public buildings of all,’ says Houben. ‘A central circulating library must empower the community it serves. Here, the community is all New Yorkers. Super-charged with energy, diversity and hope, America’s greatest city deserves the best that a central circulating li
A transformed Midtown Manhattan library building, long considered to be an eyesore, is finally open to the public after the Covid-19 pandemic and a $200 million renovation project left its doors shuttered for four years. Renamed the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, what used to be the New York.
The New York Public Library unveils a pristine renovation of an overlooked branch.
Though the New York Public Library is perhaps best known for its Stephen A Schwarzman location on Bryant Park, the striking renovation of the neighboring Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library is giving the Beaux-Arts building a run for its money. The $200 million transformation, overseen by Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle, includes 180,000 square feet of space with additional public seating areas, a whole floor dedicated to children, a business center, and a rooftop terrace. Andreas Dracopoulos, co-president of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, describes the renovation as “a truly public space, accessible to all, on the front line of further empowering the NYPL to deliver its mission of providing lifelong learning to all and strengthening our sense of community.”