M.Hill Role: Main Hall Project Architect while w/Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects.
THE SCIENCE, INDUSTRY, AND BUSINESS LIBRARY (SIBL) NEW YORK,NEW YORK
The New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) is housed on five levels of the landmarked former B. Altman Department Store on the corner of 34th street and Madison Ave in NYC. SIBL is a full-service circulating library with storage for a collection of 1.5 million volumes, an open shelf reference collection, periodical shelving and a full catalog area.
The Library’s philosophy is hands-on, with a complete reference department, open micro-form shelving, electronic information center and training rooms. SIBL is the largest branch of the New York Public Library, noted at the time as the “…a prototype of the 21st century Library.”
Public areas are located on the ground and lower floors, providing maximum horizontal adjacency for the Research Library below and easy street access to the Circulating Library and Reading Room on the ground level.
The library facility provides 50,000 square feet of office space for library management in addition to elegant public reception spaces and efficient reserve stacks. Storage and administration are organized on the upper floors, with staff areas surrounding the carefully climate-controlled stacks that have been structurally reinforced to support the heavy weight.
Healy Hall, a 33 foot tall, two-story volume provides a dynamic space for changing exhibitions and receptions that is highly visible from the street level. A “staggered” stainless steel and terrazzo staircase and a double freestanding glass and stainless steel elevator bank lead down from the ground floor entrance lobby to the Research Library below. The lower level contains extensive research facilities, a 125-seat Conference Center and an Electronic Training Center with four modifiable classrooms.
SIBL is a great example of preservation and adaptive re-use design: reclaiming the historic B. Altman façade while reconstituting the interior for a new purpose.
