Don't GUT the 42^nd Street Library!

Ada Louise Huxtable, Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2012:

"a plan devised out of a profound ignorance of or willful disregard for not only the library's original concept and design, but also the folly of altering its meaning and mission and compromising its historical and architectural integrity. You don't 'update' a masterpiece."

The Central Library Plan (CLP) threatens to demolish the historic book stacks and install a new circulating library at the New York Public Library, one of the world's great reference libraries and a New York City Individual Landmark designed by architects Carrère and Hastings in 1911. Take action by joining the Committee to Save the NYPL and LW! to stop the CLP and save the 42^nd Street Library! A week of leafleting will culminate in a rally on Wednesday, May 8^th.

The Plan will:

• Cost $350 million (probably more), of which $150 million will come from New York City taxpayers.
• Threaten the 42nd Street Library's status as one of the world's great research libraries.
• Endanger the architectural integrity of the landmarked 42nd Street building.

            And: 

• It was conceived in a closed door process, with minimal public notification and zero public input.

Leafleting at the library will take place from Noon to 1PM from May 1-7, culminating in a public rally on Wednesday, May 8^th at 3:30PM sharp in front of the NYPL facing Fifth Avenue, during the meeting of the NYPL Trustees. The Committee to Save the NYPL calls for a halt to the CLP until an independent agency can conduct a detailed cost analysis. 

Michael Kimmelman states in his scathing New York Times review of the CLP on January 29, 2013, "A new Mid-Manhattan branch should cost a fraction of gutting the stacks and could produce much better architecture."  

For more information, see www.savenypl.org.  To subscribe to the Committee's  

newsletter, click here.