“New York Public Library’s Donnell Branch to Share Space with Hotel”
Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times
08/24/09
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/arts/design/07nypl.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1251433483-kBpeAp9TWcb8yZPiQO2bUw
The New York Public Library signed an agreement to sell its property and the building housing its Donnell branch in Midtown to Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. for $59 million. The library will own and occupy space on the first floor and will have two additional floors underground. This is something the library had to do because the branch was in need of some serious renovations. It was built in 1955 so it was an old building. The project is estimated to cost $220 million and the hotel rooms would cost anywhere from $750 to $2,000 per night. There will be two separate entrances divided by a wall. They are hoping to have the project completed by 2011. In the mean time, the library will move to a temporary location and will have some of its collection available at other libraries. Paul White, president and chief executive of Orient-Express, is excited to be sharing a building with the New York Public Library because he does not want to be like everybody else. The Donnell building has the oldest elevator of any branch in the system and has outdated air-conditioning, heating and electrical systems. Orient Express will be in charge of covering the construction expenses and selecting an architect to complete the project. The library will get to choose its own designer for the interior. Paul LeClerc, president of the New York Public Library, said they want to fit in with other buildings on the street because, “We’re not going to be the poor, shabby neighbor anymore.”
I think this is a great idea. The library already needs renovations and by putting it in the same building as the hotel will help both to grow and draw more “customers” per say. People staying in the hotel will have a library to use and it will all be newly renovated. Also, hotel guests will have a quiet place to go, somewhere to use a computer or somewhere just to go to read a book. Many people may be opposed to this idea because hotels can get busy and can be a pain getting in and out of, but having the two separate entrances should help to solve this problem. People who just want to come to the library will not have to deal with the chaos of hotel guests if there is a separate entrance. I can see combining the buildings being a positive and negative thing, but hopefully it will be mostly positive and the library will get used more with all the people in and out of the hotel as well as locals.
