NYPL’s $1 Billion Plan Includes $100M Gift and Revision of Research Library

• Landmark library will house research and popular collections
• New hubs planned; Mid-Manhattan to close 
• New digital emphasis

 The New York Public Library (NYPL) today announced a $1 billion transformation plan, sparked in part by a $100 million gift from private equity fund billionaire Stephen A. Schwarzman, that involves new hub libraries, an expansion of digital resources, and a dramatic change at its physical core. NYPL will sell the aging Mid-Manhattan Library, one of the central libraries of its branch system, and use the proceeds from the real estate deal to fuel a major renovation of the flagship Humanities and Social Sciences Library across the street to accommodate the popular lending and other functions from Mid-Manhattan.

Under the five-year plan, which follows on the One NYPL strategy that consolidates the Research Libraries and Branch Libraries under one director, David Ferriero, NYPL aims to double the number of unique users who borrow materials, attend programs, and otherwise use the library in person or online. Already, NYPL said, in FY07, the library experienced more than 16 million visits to its 89 locations, a growth of two million over the previous year.

Renovations coming
NYPL estimated that it would cost $300 million to renovate the Fifth Avenue library, which opened in 1911 and is known for the lions Patience and Fortitude guarding its entrance, into "a vast, state-of-the-art lending library alongside its existing research divisions." The general research collection will be moved from the original stacks—seven levels underneath the Main Reading Room—to high-density shelving under Bryant Park, thus allowing a renovation "to create a multilevel, light-filled new library that overlooks the park." NYPL predicted a threefold increase in visitors, to an estimated 3.5 million people a year. Some "leading architecture firms" are being considered for the work, which may not be completed until 2014.

The six-story Mid-Manhattan Library, which encompasses about 150,000 square feet, is built to less than half its available development rights, according to the web site Property Shark, which means that a building more than twice as large could be built on the site. (At $400 per buildable square foot, a price not uncommon in Midtown Manhattan, the site could be worth more than $127 million.) NYPL spokesman Herb Scher said the amount of new public space for the lending library would be comparable and there would be popular materials and services on the ground floor of the Fifth Avenue library. Still, some NYPL insiders wondered to LJ whether the classic building would remain "too forbidding."

New hubs, new renovations
NYPL, which in 2006 debuted the popular Bronx Library Center, plans to spend $80 million to build two new hub libraries, one in Northern Manhattan and one in Staten Island; $130 million to renovate branch libraries throughout the system, which serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island; and $40 million for the build-out of a new Library Services Center in Long Island City in Queens. Another $130 million would be spent on technology, online expansion, collections, education, and staff. "NYPL.org will be the most used online resource in the world, one of expanding information and cultural power," NYPL president Paul LeClerc said at the press conference.

And the library seeks to add $300 million to its endowment funds for acquisitions, processing, and preservation; educational outreach; staff scholarships; and general operations. The plan includes $20 million for a a new Donnell Library, which will be funded through the sale of the current Donnell site.

Naming for Schwarzman
The gift from Schwarzman, chair, CEO, and cofounder of the Blackstone Group and an NYPL trustee since 2001, is the largest single donation in the library’s history and the largest "outright, unrestricted gift by an individual to any cultural organization in New York City," NYPL said. The Humanities and Social Sciences Library will be renamed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Schwarzman, the son of a linen and curtain store owner, grew up in Philadelphia and credits access to the Free Library of Philadelphia as a youth to his success. A longtime New Yorker, he declared, "The New York Public Library is a passport to the American dream for lower and middle income Americans and immigrants from around the world. It’s a free university for everyone, from children to scholars." Schwarzman, who is a board member of several major organizations, gained some notoriety in 2007 for a 60th birthday party that cost a reported $3 million. While the value of his holdings once neared $8 billion, recent setbacks in the market have cut the value by nearly half since last June, the New York Times reported.

The press conference today was attended by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, and many elected officials and was led by library board chair Catherine C. Marron and LeClerc. A press advisory Monday teased a "major announcement" to be presented by Marron, LeClerc, and Morrison. The author’s words were inspiring. "Knowing its library tells you what the community thinks of itself; the library tells you the quality of the civic mind," she said. NYPL "is the place where only the best is good enough for the least of us." Bloomberg saluted the public-private partnership, saying there’s "never enough public money."