New York Public Library – Mulberry Street Branch

Rogers Marvel Architects inserts a grand stair into an old loft floor, allowing light to penetrate into two subterranean levels.

By James Murdock
This is an excerpt of an article from the February 2008 edition of Architectural Record.

During the 1970s, artists transformed light industrial buildings in New York City’s SoHo district into studios and residences. Young professionals and families followed. It’s an archetypal story that’s since been repeated in cities nationwide. Eventually, SoHo residents wanted the same amenities found in other neighborhoods, including their own library. The New York Public Library (NYPL) secured a space and, in a nod to nearby Little Italy, which would share the facility, named it the Mulberry Street Branch.

The scarcity of land in Manhattan often leaves just two directions for growth: up or down. NYPL was obliged to follow the latter course at the former Hawley & Hoops candy factory, constructed in 1886, with a cast-iron column structure and brick walls. It leased a portion of the ground floor and two subterranean levels, then asked Rogers & Marvel Architects to design reading rooms and stacks for children, teens, and adults, as well as a community room and a large area for public computers.

Marta Sanders, project architect, says the design team wanted to reserve as much of the library’s “precious” ground floor as possible for public use. Rather than locate the main entry on Mulberry Street, which would have meant sacrificing window frontage along this east elevation for the circulation desk and staff work areas, they moved it to the north elevation on Jersey Street. This allowed a window-lined reading room, ringed with cushioned benches and containing low shelves for adult paperback fiction and DVDs. The architects removed two wood joists in the center of the ground floor—reusing one to serve as a counter for the card catalog station—and inserted a stair that connects all three levels of the library. Overhead, a band of sheet aluminum painted green serves as a navigation aid and also conceals HVAC conduits, keeping the other ceilings clutter-free.

Elevator pits, a disused boiler room, and mechanical lines divided the subgrade levels into a warren of smaller spaces. The designers moved some of these elements but primarily used the unusually shaped volumes to their advantage. On lower-level one, which features the shortest ceiling heights, they located children’s and toddler’s reading rooms. At the building’s northeast corner, they cut “window” openings and installed lighting to reveal views of a passage that runs underneath the sidewalk. On lower-level two, the architects located the teen reading room in a narrow volume that stretches westward, away from the central stair and the bulk of the library. North of the stair, they located the community room and the public computers. The main adult reading room and stacks occupy the cavernous boiler room, which features a 23-foot ceiling. Working on a tight budget, Rogers & Marvel retained as many of the space’s original details as possible. On the ground floor, they exposed cast-iron columns and wood ceiling joists, while on lower levels they preserved existing masonry walls. For the stair, they chose perforated-aluminum panels and mahogany railings. The floors are a mixture of wood and polished concrete.

Formal name of building:
New York Public Library – Mulberry Street Branch

Location:
10 Jersey Street, New York, NY, 10012

Completion Date: May 2007

Gross square footage: 15,000 sq.ft.

Total project cost: $4.5 million (construction only)

Owner: The New York Public Library

Architect:
Rogers Marvel Architects
145 Hudson Street, Third Floor
New York, NY 10013
212-941-6718 tel.
212-941-7573 fax
www.rogersmarvel.com/

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