Hunters Point Community Library has broken ground today in a ceremony attended by government and community leaders. The new library will stand as a public building and park and will bring community-devoted space to the Long Island City waterfront.
Glazed cuts in the façade grant users views toward the city as they move up a series of bookshelf flanked stairs. The main Manhattan view, perpendicular to the internal movement of the library, gives visitors to this small space a dramatic experience. The concrete structure of the building is exposed and aluminum painted, giving the exterior a subtle sparkle. A golden-section upturned rectangle is carved out according to the browsing circuit of movement within the interior of library.
In celebration of the groundbreaking, an exhibition chronicling the design process of this new civic building will open at the SculptureCenter on May 19. The online exhibition can be found here.