The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has voted to designate two Beaux-Arts style rooms in the main library branch as interior landmarks.
Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo will lead the renovation of the Stephen A. Schwartzman Building at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue and the Mid-Manhattan Library on 40th Street.
It’s typical for a public institution to announce a big building project with fanfare. But when the same project is dropped, the institution may invoke its right to remain silent.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the New York Public Library has revised its plans for a Norman Foster-designed, $300-million renovation of its flagship 5th Avenue building.
Even before Norman Foster presented his firm's scheme in late December to alter radically the New York Public Library's main branch, controversy swirled among scholars about plans to change Carrère & Hastings' 1897 Beaux-Arts masterpiece at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.
Three years and $50 million after work first began, the New York Public Library has revealed the fully renovated facade of the landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue.
