New York Public Library Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (New York City, New York)

 library, place with historical importance, interesting place, historic landmark, 1911_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

6-story (plus basement levels) Beaux-Arts library building completed in 1911. Designed by Carrère & Hastings with structural elements by the Guastavino Fireproof Tile Co., the "main library" (formally known as the Humanities and Social Sciences Library) is here at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, now named the Stephen A. Schwartzman Building since 2008. From about 1860 to 1905, the library site was occupied by the "Croton Aqueduct", really a reservoir for the New York Water Supply System. It had walls about 40 feet high and occupied the entire site.

Set back a considerable distance from Fifth Avenue, the white marble building is placed behind a long terrace extending the full length of the Fifth Avenue side. Flanked by the famous marble lions, broad steps lead to this terrace separated from the street by a raised and balustraded parapet wall and a landscaped enclosure. The lions guarding the entrance were sculpted by Edward Clark Potter. Their original names, "Leo Astor" and "Leo Lenox" (in honor of the library's founders) were transformed into Lord Astor and Lady Lenox (although both lions are male), and in the 1930s they were nicknamed "Patience" and "Fortitude" by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. At the far end pavilions are flagpoles, whose sculpted bronze bases designed by Thomas Hastings in 1912 were realized by the sculptor Raffaele Menconi.

A handsome low-rise flight of steps, flanked by giant stone urns, leads to the imposing entrance dominated by a central pavilion with a deep-set triple-arched portico embellished with coupled, fluted Corinthian columns. A large keystone with female face graces each arch, from the ceilings of which hang globe light fixtures. Each of the three entrance porticos has a double door in a stone frame, topped by a triangular pediment and glass infill above. There are niches in the sidewalls that also have keystones with faces. The columns support an entablature with dentils and a modillioned cornice above a frieze with the words "THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY" and the dates of construction in Roman numerals on either side.

Surmounting the colonnade is an attic wall with six sculpted figures standing on the ledge of the ornately decorated cornice extending the full length of the building. On either side of the central pavilion, another set of niches, surround by deeply-rusticated stone, contain sculpted figures above fountains, and further to the outside, five round-arched windows (with square-headed windows at the upper level) alternate with fluted Corinthian columns. There are balustrades at the bases of the windows, and a rusticated basement level with square-headed windows covered by iron grilles extending out to either side. The facade terminates with the excellently proportioned pedimented end pavilions, each with another bay of round-arched windows between columns. The triangular pediments in the end pavilions contain pairs of lounging sculpted figures. On either side of the central pavilion, above the cornice, there are balustrades at each bay, and a low-sloped metal roof, with a slightly higher section topping the central pavilion.

A taller, T-shaped section of the building forms the central spine and west facade, creating two inner courtyards. This section is also capped by a low-sloped metal roof. The west facade, facing onto Bryant Park, has a deeply-rusticated lower level, topped by a mid-section of very narrow, tall windows. Towards both ends the walls are rusticated, and a pair of end pavilions with triangular pediments recalls the east facade on the avenue. Capping the mid-section is a band of swags and ribbons; above this are widely-spaced, very small windows with small stone balconies, interspaced by nine bays of large round-arched windows framed by quoins. At the rusticated end pavilions, there are two floors of small, narrow windows. A band course runs all the way across the west facade, which is capped by a modillioned cornice and the roof.

The north and south facades, on 40th and 42nd Streets, are both 11 bays wide. The north elevation, along the larger 42nd Street, is more prominent, and has an entrance in the center bay. It is set at the top of a small set of steps, between a pair of ornate bronze lamps. In front is another, broader flight of steps that breaks a low, balustraded wall and opens onto the sidewalk. Behind the wall and terrace, the lowest level has small, square, paired basement windows (flanking the stairs up to the entrance). The entry level is rusticated, with paired windows in each bay, topped by a rounded cornice. The entry bay itself is projected slightly forward of the other bays, and the doorway has a molded surround, with two large brackets supporting the balustraded stone balcony above. The next two floors have slightly-recessed bays with tall round-arched windows with stone balustrades at their bases, surmounted by scrolled keystones with lions' heads below square-headed paired windows with stone surrounds. The windows in the center bay are framed by a pair of fluted Corinthian columns, and a flagpole projects from above the lion's head. This bay is topped by a dentiled and modillioned triangular pediment, and the dentiled and modillioned cornice continues on either side to connect with the cornices from the east and west facades. The attic level above the cornice is capped by stone balustrades between the wide piers.

The south facade is set back behind a stone wall with widely-spaced sections of rustication, topped by a band with a wave-motif. The wall breaks in the middle with a pair of rusticated end pillars that feature alternating metopes and roundels at the tops, to allow access to the segmental-arched freight entrance in the ground floor's center bay. There is another freight entrance is the next bay to the south. The wall of the ground floor is rusticated, and the other bays all have paired windows with iron grilles. Above a rounded cornice the next floors mainly match those on the opposite facade, with tall round-arched windows with balustrades, lions' head keystones, and square-headed paired windows in surrounds at the top level. There are quoins at the two edges of the facade, and each bay is slightly recessed between the wide piers. The top of the arch in the center bay is flanked by a pair of carvings representing the arts and literature. The modillioned and dentiled cornice runs across the entire facade, topped by the attic floor's balustrades and low-sloping metal roof.

The New York Public Library has locations in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. It was formed in 1895 by the consolidation of three libraries. These included the Astor Library, the private library of James Lenox, and The Tilden Trust, Samuel Tilden's private library. Now with nearly 53 million items, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress), and fourth largest in the world. The main building has a huge reading room (called the Rose Reading Room) on top of seven floors of bookstacks.

By the 1970s, it was clear the collection eventually would outgrow the existing Fifth Avenue structure. In the 1980s the central library added more than 125,000 square feet of space and literally miles of bookshelf space to make room for future acquisitions. This expansion required a major construction project in which Bryant Park, directly west of the library, was closed to the public and excavated. The new library facilities were built below ground level and the park was restored above it. New interior renovations were designed in 2020 by Mecanoo.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2592.pdf
archive.org/details/newyorkpubliclib00reed/mode/2up
archive.org/details/sim_architectural-record_1910-09_28...
hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015010943267?urlappend=%3Bseq...
usmodernist.org/AMAR/AMAR-1910-1109.pdf
www.mecanoo.nl/Projects/project/204/Stephen-A-Schwarzma...