Elmhurst Community Library Building, Queens Cubes, New York Architecture Images
Elmhurst Community Library Building
New Architecture in Queens, NYC, USA – design by Marpillero Pollack Architects
Jun 15, 2018
Elmhurst Community Library Building in Queens
Design: Marpillero Pollack Architects
Location: 86-07 Broadway, Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, USA
Elmhurst Community Library, Queens
With 80,000+ users, speaking more than 57 languages, Elmhurst is the second busiest circulating library in Queens Library?s (QL) network of 64 branches.
It is the largest outcome of the NYC-DDC Design Excellence Program for small firms, replacing a 1904 Carnegie library with a new 30,500 sf building that fulfills QL?s mission of access, transparency, and technology.
Two floors of the building are devoted to library use, the other two function as a community center accessible after-hours through a separate entrance and stair, whose extra-wide landings provide opportunities for social interaction. As a truly public institution, the library represents a neighborhood anchor and a community hub.
The library?s Z-shaped massing maximizes the impact of the existing Community Park, now fully preserved, and new Learning Garden visually opened to a stand of mature oaks at the urban block interior. The building integrates inside and outside by extending the streetscape through a main circulation spine that passes through its transparent center, linking together 13,000sf of landscaped grounds, i...