Weiss/Manfredi designs a new public library in Rego Park, Queens

Development is formally underway on a brand new residence for the Rego Park Library, in Queens, New York, a ground-up substitute of the growing older 1975 department at 91-41 63rd Drive. The $39 million challenge, designed by Weiss/Manfredi for the Queens Public Library (QPL) and managed by the Division of Design and Development (DDC), will greater than double the scale of the prevailing constructing, a squat 1-story brick constructing.

“Rego Park has grown and altered considerably for the reason that present department opened 50 years in the past, and we’re thrilled to start development on a spectacular new library with double the house, trendy facilities and a commanding road presence,” stated Queens Public Library President and CEO Dennis M. Walcott. 

Renderings present a compact, 3-story constructing wrapped in jade-colored brick, its floor marked by a cadence of tall vertical home windows that sweep round each street-facing elevations. The openings will stretch throughout double-height studying rooms inside in an effort to create lengthy bands of daylight. At floor degree, the facade will pull open on the main entrance, the place a recessed part of glazing will reveal an inside stair. 

Inside the brand new 7,500-square-foot constructing, Weiss/Manfriedi’s design organizes circulation round a broad central stair paired with an elevator, linking the lower-level multipurpose room, the ground-floor grownup areas, and the kids’s flooring above.

A devoted artwork set up, a part of town’s % for Artwork program, might be embedded immediately into the structure. Katrin Siggurdardottir’s The Fore is ready to span roughly 1,500 sq. toes throughout three inside partitions. In renderings, the paintings seems as massive, leaf-like silhouettes rising from a area of alternating contoured and normal bricks. The patterning will evoke halftone imaging whereas referencing crops native to Queens, turning the masonry itself into the medium for the mural’s shifting, pixelated varieties.

A low-maintenance inexperienced roof will prime the construction, whereas high-efficiency lighting and mechanical techniques, on-site stormwater retention, and a extremely insulated envelope are deliberate to deliver the constructing consistent with modern sustainability requirements. The challenge is focusing on LEED Silver. 

Rego Park has lengthy been one among QPL’s busiest branches, persistently rating close to the highest in circulation, visits, and pc use, a workload that has more and more strained the constructing’s restricted footprint. For years, employees and native officers have pointed to the department’s recognition as proof that the one-story facility might not preserve tempo with demand for program house, know-how entry, and devoted areas for youngsters and youths. Although now, the library is closed for demolition and development, QPL will function a cell library on-site and direct patrons to close by branches.

The brand new constructing design additionally arrives at a second of heightened scrutiny for civic structure in Queens. Incapacity advocates lately gained a class-action lawsuit over the Hunters Level Library by Steven Holl Architects, the place greater than 100 accessibility boundaries required intensive remediation. The DDC has since accomplished these corrections, however the case has sharpened public consideration on how new buildings deal with circulation, vertical entry, and inclusive design. That context is clear within the Rego Park Library’s accessible format.

The Rego Park challenge sits inside DDC’s long-running Design and Development Excellence Program, which pre-qualifies design corporations to streamline procurement for civic buildings. By way of this system, town has delivered current department libraries in Far Rockaway, East Flatbush, Inwood, and The Bronx. 

Demolition of the prevailing Rego Park Library is now underway, with development of the brand new constructing anticipated to be accomplished in late 2028.