Mecanoo Selected for NYPL Renovations

The Dutch firm will lead the renovations of two Midtown-Manhattan libraries for the New York Public Library: the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and the Mid-Manhattan Library, which sit across Fifth Avenue from each other.

This news comes about a year and a half after the NYPL abandoned its plan for Norman Foster to transform its landmark, 103-year-old Schwarzman Building into a circulating library. That project would have involved removing the extensive stacks from under the Rose Reading Room to create an atrium, as well as selling the Mid-Manhattan Library to help pay for the transformation.

Under the new $300 million USD plan Mecanoo will first renovate the Mid-Manhattan Library, the NYPL's main circulating branch, with construction set to start in 2017 and targeting a 2019 completion. After that date, work will start on expanding the Schwarzman Building, the NYPL's main research library, by approximately 42 percent.

Mecanoo, led by creative director Francine Houben, was selected for the project based on their extensive experience on award-winning libraries, such as the Library Delft University of Technology and the Library of Birmingham, as well as "a year of discussion and planning led by librarians and informed by expert and public feedback," per a statement from Mecanoo. They will work on the two libraries with Beyer Blinder Belle, a ​New York firm specialized in historic preservation.