28 PROJECT REPORT: CULTURAL, CIVIC & FAITH BUILDINGS
thousands of daily users. It was part funded by NYC, but received a large donation from The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the legacy of the Greek shipping magnate. Elizabeth Leber, managing partner at BBB, says the working relationship between her practice and Mecanoo was “excellent from the start.” She explains: “There is a common respect for each other and for the work, and a spirit of collaboration, directness, and transparency between our firms and between Francine and me as architects, women, and individuals.”
© John Bartelstone
Three teams were established within Mecanoo’s HQ in Delft, but it also set up an office within BBB’s New York base for the five year project duration. The client’s brief, built around the ‘life-long learning’ concept, essentially to provide facilities for all ages, was a “good foundational document,” says Leber. But being prepared a year before their appointment, the architects reviewed “whether it still reflected the space needs and programmatic aspirations of the librarians, curators, other staff, and our leadership team,” says Leber.
design opens up the interior to provide a hugely improved environmental quality to attract new users, and adds a striking green ‘wizard’s hat’ and roof terrace. Following the completion of its much smaller (although still 16,722 m2
) sister, and © Max Touhey
working to the team’s masterplan, the practices are now continuing with the sensitive updating of the 1911-built Main Branch itself, which is due to complete in 2023. A research library with a vast paper, digital and image archive spanning the history of New York, its top floor houses the Rose Main Reading Room, which in part provided inspiration for the refurbishment of the Mid-Manhattan Library. Mecanoo, and its founder Francis Houben, have a storied track record in libraries, from the Stirling Prize-nominated Library of Birmingham, to the expansive green roof-covered library at the University of Delft, to the refurbishment of Mies Van Der Rohe’s Martin Luther King Memorial Library in Washington DC. BBB brought vital expertise from overseeing major NYC renovations such as restoration, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse at some of New York City’s most iconic and treasured landmarks, such as Ellis Island, Grand Central Terminal, and New York City Hall. The practices were selected jointly by the City for this high-profile project, needed to help bring greater logic to the buildings for
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The resulting scheme encompassed both buildings, and a third existing structure which was to be closed, so the close collaboration was essential to navigate its complexity; bolstered by extensive use of BIM. This allowed both practices to work on the same models, but also gave the client the opportunity to experience the ongoing design in 3D using VR headsets.
Masterplan
Francine Houben gives ADF an insight into the fundamentals of library design; “A lot of architects think that libraries are about books, but they are about collections.” She explains that tackling both buildings simultaneously enabled the two practices to analyse and resolve their programme issues, across a wide range of physical and digital collections.
There were some obviously illogical aspects to the existing programme. For example, the children’s library was in the SASB (which is a more discreet research facility), and the picture collection was in the circulating library, so these were switched to the other respective sites. The overarching intent of the masterplan was to try and provide a connection between the two buildings, given that they are separated by busy 5th Avenue, to form one ‘campus.’ One key means of achieving this was by ranging seating along the north- west facade to ensure users have a clear view of SASB, and literally to raise the roof
ADF DECEMBER 2021
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