Quietly—after all, it is a library—the New York Public Library (NYPL) is meeting with architects to decide who will undertake a $300 million top-to-bottom renovation of its signature main branch: the lion-flanked, marble-clad Beaux-Arts landmark designed by John Carrere and Thomas Hastings, opened in 1911 at Fifth Avenue and West 42nd Street in the heart of Manhattan.

Photo © James Murdock