A conference room with two wooden tables and six green chairs, overlooking an indoor garden with plants and a staircase through a large glass wall. There are bookshelves on the left and signs indicating meeting rooms and restrooms on the right.
A modern library interior with a row of desktop computers on a wooden table, green chairs, bookshelves filled with books, and a sign indicating the librarian's area at the back.
Indoor view of a meeting room sign with a wooden wall and circular pattern railing in front, surrounded by green plants and large glass windows.
Modern office workspace with a row of computers and green chairs along a wooden desk by large windows, with additional seating and tables in the background.
Modern, empty indoor hallway with wooden walls, terrazzo flooring, large windows revealing a library, and a wooden bench with greenery.
A large, modern, green and silver mailbox with slot openings, arranged in a geometric pattern, outside near a tree and parked cars.
Sidewalk view of a bookstore with a large green and white sign reading 'BOOK AREY' on the front of the building on a sunny day, with a one-way street sign nearby and trees lining the street.

We found the original East Elmhurst Branch library facing a six lane commercial boulevard as a foreboding brick bunker with dark tinted glass and black window frames. Completed in 1968 to protect the library from a declining and restless city, it was far removed from the pride and promise of our Carnegie era libraries.

We placed the teenagers hang out where the action is - overlooking the sidewalk.

The project meets the criteria for LEED Silver and contains several innovative sustainability features, including thermostatically controlled buoyant air natural ventilation, carefully designed solar control, active heat recovery ventilation, and a high performance envelope with insulated glazing.

We placed a new skylit and passively ventilated garden adjacent to the old library and removed the walls between them. The garden illuminates the interior of the library as it creates a quiet and contemplative comfort. The most gratifying moment was to meet the community as the library reopened and feel the sense of pride that that architecture can bring to all of us.

Architectural cross-section of a building showing rear yard landscaping, stormwater retention wells, interior multi-purpose space, light shelf, high albedo modified bitumen roof, aluminum adjustable louvers, and low E insulated glass curtain wall.
Architectural floor plan of a building, showing rooms, furniture, parking, and surrounding landscape with trees.
Cross-sectional diagram of a building with features like ventilating skylight, polycarbonate panels, sunspace with return air, adjustable aluminum louvers, low E insulated glass curtain wall, adult reading area, daylighting into existing reading area, interior court, and multi-use space.
Empty indoor space with green chairs arranged in rows, large glass windows showing greenery outside, wood-paneled walls, and a ceiling with a circular pattern.

The challenge of relating new construction to old has been met by enclosing the public face of the existing building within a continuous glass room along Astoria Blvd. This strategy treats the existing building as an artifact in a vitrine while collecting the original building and the addition behind a unified façade.

Client
NYC DDC Design Excellence Program

Status
Complete

Info
2019
Institutional
11,890 sf
Queens, NY

Awards
NYC Public Design Commission Award

Publications
→ NYC Public Design Commission explores small-scale prefabrication potential in a big-city context