NYPL’s Donnell Library Site To Become New Hotel, with Smaller Library
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 11/7/2007
In the first example of an apparent new strategy to make the most use of valuable land housing outmoded library facilities (as hinted in LJ’s recent coverage), the New York Public Library (NYPL) has agreed to sell the land and building of the Donnell Library, located at 24 West 53rd Street in midtown, to a company to build an 11-story hotel that will include space for a significantly smaller library.Beyond the library space, NYPL will receive $59 million in cash, which also will support “significant capital needs at other branch libraries,” the library said. NYPL estimates that the Donnell Library, built in 1955, would need $48 million in renovations. “Our agreement with Orient-Express presents an extraordinary opportunity for us to create a modern, new circulating library at the same location as our current Donnell facility, which was opened in 1955, and is outdated,” said David Offensend, NYPL's Chief Operating Officer.
Currently, Donnell occupies 84,000 square feet over five floors, half of which is public space. The new library will be 28,000 square feet on three floors, of which 19,000 square feet will be public. Some of the collections, like the Media Center and World Languages, will be located elsewhere, but the amount of space for remaining functions will be comparable to the current space, said NYPL spokesman Herb Scher. (Other functions include Adult services, the Central Children's Room. Teen Central, and Reference, plus an auditorium, though Scher said he couldn’t yet specify whether all would remain.) A unit of the Central Libraries, Donnell houses NYPL’s largest circulating collection of materials in languages other than English.
The New York Times reported that the hotel and library would be separated by a wall, and that five floors of the hotel would connect to the “21” Club on 52nd Street, which is also owned by Orient-Express.
Donnell will close to the public in fall 2008; the new building would be completed in no more than three-and-one-half years. NYPL will look for a temporary site “to provide Donnell’s essential services” and will make its collections available at other locations.
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