Professional Circle Tour: Stavros Niarchos Library

The New York Landmarks Conservancy is very pleased to offer its Professional Circle members an exclusive tour with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and NYPL Capital Planning & Construction of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library.

Date and time
Thursday, January 26, 2023, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM EST

Location
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library 455 5th Avenue New York, NY 10016

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library is New York’s new central circulating library, designed by Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo in collaboration with Beyer Blinder Belle. Built within the 1914 shell and steel frame of the Mid-Manhattan Library which it replaces, the 180,000-square-foot building is topped with a spectacular angular roof and public rooftop amenities to make a new urban icon on Fifth Avenue.

It is a new-generation library for all New Yorkers, with special facilities for young users, adult learning, and business. It offers the perfect contemporary complement to NYPL’s world-famous Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, located across Fifth Avenue from SNFL. SASB opened in 1911, designed by architects Carrère & Hastings in a glorious Beaux-Art style, and receives over 1.7 million visits a year as the mothership of NYPL’s reference collections.

Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle’s concept was to leverage the synergy of SNFL and SASB and bring them together as NYPL’s Midtown Campus. New features at SNFL reflect this harmony between the buildings: long tables that recall the impressive scale of those in Rose Main Reading Room, ceiling artwork in the Long Room that echoes the neo-classical paintings set in the main library’s ceilings, and the use of classic materials including natural stone, terrazzo, and oak.