57/100: When a Billionaire Builds a Library
This vignette is one in 100 of a series that explores the libraries of New York City.
Back in New York and this week we’re at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, formerly known as the Mid-Manhattan Library. It’s on the corner of 5th Avenue and 40th Street, in what was originally built as a department store, and sits just across the street from the majestic Central Research Library, which it of course pales in comparison to. The NYPL opened it as a circulating library in 1970 and it has since fallen into disrepair, burnishing a reputation for decay, or as Ada Calhoun put it in The New Yorker, “where New Yorkers unbathed, unhinged, or just perennially unoccupied spend hours staring at the same page of a prop book”. Anthony W. Marx, the president of the NYPL system, called it an embarrassment.
The threat of shutting it down loomed overhead for a while, but plans always fell through and in 2017 it announced it was closing for renovations. A pandemic and a $200 million facelift ($55 million of which came in the form of a donation from the now namesake Stavros Niarchos Foundation) later, the branch reopened in June 2021 as the sleek, streamlined, shiny space it is today.
First of all, it’s enormous: six floors plus a rooftop cafe makes it the largest circulation library within city limits. Bigger than the Beverly Hills Library for sure. Everything is new; there’s lots of glass and open space and so, so many books. To my right is an elevator with a legend for what’s where. I’ve decided to start at the top and work my way down, so I head up to the terrace — good way to start, I know.
The SNFL version of Emma’s Torch is called Amy’s Bread, but it’s just a regular coffee shop. Cute pastries and I had a decent chai latte, but no initiatives to help the disadvantaged or anything like that. Just saying. BPL: 1, SNFL: 0. Then again SNFL has a rooftop terrace in the middle of Manhattan so I guess that makes them tied.
It’s a pretty extraordinary thing that anyone can come here, order an espresso, and take in one of the most coveted views of New York City. And yet there are no crowds, only a few people scattered throughout, admiring the scenery, sipping coffee, taking photos, reading, scribbling, chatting with a friend. I definitely feel like I’m at a library that’s been donated by a Greek shipping billionaire. I can’t help thinking it would make for a great party locale.
The views stretch from the Schwartzman building across the street all the way down Fifth Avenue and 40th Street, each one some combination of buildings from the many architectural eras of Midtown Manhattan. Part of me relishes in the grandeur of it all and wants to post more photos, the other part is guilt-stricken at even writing about it in the first place. Should I be letting anyone else in on this unbelievably well-kept secret?
(I thought about it — here I’d say the answer is yes, seeing as the people I’m sharing this with all love libraries anyway, but I’m not telling anyone else.)
I try to position myself so I can overhear some conversations but most people here are either solo or quiet. There is one pair deep in an animated conversation but it’s in Spanish, so there’s not much I can do with that. You don’t even have to buy a coffee to sit out here, some people just come up to take pictures. One guy even brought his own Starbucks — that’s going a bit far, I’d say, but no one’s perfect.
The glamor that a terrace carries with it serves as a nice reminder that some rich people (or at least their foundations) still use their money to do nice things for the community instead of going to space. I didn’t get an in-depth look at the rest of the library but what I did pass on my way in looked good — not Beauty and the Beast good, but more like sparkling-cheerful-expensive good. Both valuable in their own rights.
I take the stairs down on my way out, passing story after story of books and workspaces, both open-spaced and closed-off. There are event flyers everywhere, not unlike the ones at Jefferson Market. The books are skillfully displayed, and a few titles catch my eye, I approach the shelves. The stacks appear to have hit the mark in terms both of quality and quantity, and I look forward to getting back to them tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!