Library Buildings around the World

Ennead Architects LLP, New York, NY – USA
formerly: Polshek Partnership Architects, LLP. New York, NY – USA
http://ennead.com
http://www.polshek.com
Libraries:
New York University, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York, NY – USA 2009
Polshek Partnership Architechts, 2009, Engineers- M-E Engineers,LEED Consultant- Steven Winter Associates
In a landmark redesign project that began in 2007, the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University renovated its
home at 715 Broadway to reflect the innovation that has defined the School since its inception in 1972. In the first renovation project
at NYU to achieve LEED certification, a total area of approximately 32,000 square feet was completely renovated in 2007 and 2008.
The project scope included a complete renovation of the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th floors of the building. Renovations included a
theater, dance studio, lecture rooms, gallery space, classrooms, administrative offices in addition to creating a comfortable space for
students and faculty to gather and cultivate ideas. (Enned)
William J. Clinton Presendential Center, Little Rock, AR – USA 2004
Smith College. Brown Fine Arts Center, Nothampton, MA – USA 2002
Total area: 164,000 gross square feet , Project cost: $35 million, http://www.smithedu/bfac/building.php
Smith College's renowned Museum of Art, art library and art department have a distinguished new home -- the newly named Brown
Fine Arts Center -- thanks to the completion of a two-year, $35-million building renovation and expansion. At its outset, the
renovation was the largest capital project in the college's 122-year history.
Led by New York City-based Polshek Partnership Architects, the renovation stripped the former 1972 complex down to its steel
girders and then rebuilt it entirely, transforming its architecture and infrastructure. The art library and department opened in
September, 2002; the center's other key occupant, the Smith College Museum of Art, opened in April, 2003.
New features of the 164,000-gross-square-foot facility include a cutting-edge digital imaging center, updated ventilation and
environmental controls and improved galleries and art studios. The Hillyer Art Library, regarded as among the best art libraries at
American undergraduate institutions, was significantly redesigned. The new building features a greatly expanded technological
infrastructure, a dramatic aesthetic overhaul and improved amenities for students, staff and visitors. (Ennead)
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, New
York, NY – USA 2001
While it may look familiar from the outside, visitors to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will find it
dramatically transformed when the Library reopens at Lincoln Center after a major renovation. After operating from temporary
quarters during the three-year construction period, the Library reopens for regular public service with expanded hours on Monday,
October 29. A free public open house will be held Saturday, October 13. The $37 million project, designed by Polshek Partnership
Architects, reflects the vast changes in the needs of users, and in methods of documenting the arts, that have developed since the
Library was established in 1965.
"This redesign of one of the world's most popular research libraries is a response to the enormous increase in its collections and
usership, the extraordinary advances in information technology, and the development of large multimedia collections that document
live performances," said New York Public Library President Paul LeClerc. "We've made the collections more accessible, created
inviting reading rooms and galleries, and added the latest technology to improve the environment for the public, the staff, and the
collections."
When the building reopens to the public, it will also have a new name -- the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center -- in honor of the
couple whose generous contribution to the Library made the new state-of-the-art facility possible. "The Cullmans' support will
enable the Library to enhance greatly its ability to document the performing arts and provide broad public access to the materials in
its collections," said Samuel C. Butler, Chairman of the Library's Board of Trustees. Major support for the renovation was also
provided by the family of Donald and Mary Oenslager. The City of New York, under the leadership of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani
and City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone, has contributed more than $20 million to the renovation of the Library for the
Performing Arts. The Library will formally express its gratitude to all the contributors to this project at an opening ribbon-cutting
ceremony on October 11.
"The list of improvements to the Library is impressive," said William D. Walker, Senior Vice President and Andrew W. Mellon
Director of The Research Libraries. "They include a grand, light-filled reading room, spectacular loft-like exhibition galleries, new
audiovisual stations, a vastly more efficient centralized retrieval system, expanded storage, an enhanced preservation lab, a four-fold
increase in public-access computers, and a massive number of networked databases." He added that "an automated system will
control temperatures where delicate materials are stored."
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The Library for the Performing Arts, one of four major research centers of The New York Public Library, serves more than 425,000
visitors a year and houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, research, and rare archival collections in its field.
The materials are available free of charge, along with a wide range of exhibitions, seminars, and performances. Approximately 30
percent of the Library's holdings are books, but it is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as
historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs,
posters, and photographs. The Library's Research Collections are the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, the Jerome Robbins Dance
Division, the Music Division, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. It also features extensive Circulating
Collections with materials in music, dance, drama, film, and arts administration, including large collections of circulating audio and
video recordings.
"This marks the first major renovation of the Library since it opened in 1965," said Jacqueline Z. Davis, The Barbara G. and
Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. "The Library's collections
have grown exponentially since then to nine million items that require more than seventeen and a half miles of shelves. In addition,"
Davis said, "technology has completely changed the way materials are stored and accessed. The reconfigured space will allow us to
provide better service in a more pleasing environment that can comfortably accommodate continued collection processing and
preservation work. It also gives us the opportunity to make significant improvements to our staff work areas."
(http://independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=446)
Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture, Academic Building
and Library, New York, NY – USA 2000
The renovation of 36 West 86th Street, a 1905 residential building located in Manhattan’s Upper West Side Historic District,
completes the second phase of work for the Bard Graduate Center’s academic facility. Completed in 2000, the first phase at 38 West
86 th Street entailed the restoration of the historic townhouse and two additional floors and an expansion into the rear yard to
accommodate a 75-seat lecture hall, library, and digital imaging center, classrooms, lounges, and offices. Combining the adjacent
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