NYPL Opens First Green Branch

This morning the New York Public Library cut the ribbon on their brand new Battery Park City Library, which also happens to be the first green library in Manhattan. Their 88th branch, located at 175 North End Avenue, is about 10,000-square-feet and has a pricetag of $6.7 million. The branch is expected to receive LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, and inside you'll find:

An efficient technologically advanced low-energy heating/cooling system
Low-flow sanitary fixtures which reduce water consumption
Low-energy lighting system
Use of recycled and renewable building materials including a wood floor constructed with off-cuts from window frame manufacture, carpets constructed from old truck tires, millwork made from recycled cardboard composite, and terrazzo with recycled glass and mirror aggregate
The inclusion of a dedicated area for the collection and storage of all recyclable materials accumulated during the day to day operations of the branch
Use of a large number of the products that are low emitting in order to help the overall indoor air quality

On top of all that, there are a total of 24,000 items, 36 public access computers, separate reading areas for children, young adults, and adults, as well as a multipurpose programming room on the second floor, and two self-checkout machines.

It is now open to the public, and today they'll be hosting free events. Regular library hours will be: Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on March 18, 2010 1:00 PM

Comments [rss]

JLRodP

Why does the library need to have such bright colors?

dh

Yes, but why is it so UGLY???

Egglantine

To be really green, it would have to only have ebooks...

handsomedevil

Eh, debatable. The electricity cost of our digital culture is significant, or so I hear. And you've got the manufacturing costs and disposal hazards of all the hardware involved.

Books are cheap to make, biodegradable, and once made they just sit there. Trees are renewable.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

while I like this new library, I hate how Bloomberg closes down libraries (Donnell) and reduces their hours (all over Queens, Brooklyn) and yet waste so much money on a new library. This is how he works, he destroys too much and then builds a little thing with a tremendous cost. He closes down large schools and then spends twice the amount on a smaller charter schools. Bloomberg doesn't improve on anything but remakes it in his own image.

bitchincamaro

Looks great. Too bad nobody reads books anymore.

aspiringrapper

If you seriously believe that, you're an idiot.

bitchincamaro

I don't "literally" believe that, though for perhaps one of many other reasons, I very well could be an "idiot". Of course people still read "books", and I don't claim to be an expert, nor have I done any clinical studies, as you no doubt have, but I know that brick and mortar bookshops are closing all over the country, e-readers are becoming the rage, as is the puny i-Pod Touch that I occasionally read books on. My overstatement was meant to convey the sense that we are more inclined to lurk or comment on blogs like this, play electronic games with gizmos similar to the one I'm typing on, or spend a cozy Saturday curled up with a plastic fantastic virtual page-turner, than pick up an actual bound paper device.

Now, doesn't it lose a little something in the translation?

Paul Ale

Rapper fail.

aspiringrapper

Hardly, genius. Look up information on the circulation of books in the 3 city library systems. And incidentally, if you'd set foot in a library in the last decade or so, you'd know they have far more available for borrowing than books.