The Bronx Library Center is a branch of the New York Public Library in the Fordham section of

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. The library is located at 310 East Kingsbridge Road between

Fordham Road Fordham Road is a major thoroughfare in the Bronx, New York City, that runs west-east from the Harlem River to Bronx Park. Fordham Road houses the borough's largest and most diverse shopping district. It geographically separates the North Bro ...

and East 192nd Street, two blocks east of the Grand Concourse. It is the central library for the Bronx. The library opened in January 2006, replacing the Fordham Branch Library, which had previously served the Bronx. At , it is the first "

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

" library in

with

LEED Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...

certification; it also has three times as much space as its predecessor. This building cost an estimated $50 million and is characterized by the sloping curve of its roof and the extensive glass curtain wall on the eastern

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of the facade. The building was designed by the New York City-based

architecture firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countr ...

Dattner Architects, led by architect Richard Dattner.

Site

The library is in the Fordham Heights neighborhood of

, overlooking the shopping strip along Fordham Road and facing the old library on Bainbridge Avenue to the east. The massive new building is highly visible from East Kingsbridge Road, contrasting drastically with its neighboring buildings, which are primarily low-rise commercial or residential buildings. The

Edgar Allan Poe Cottage The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage (or Poe Cottage) is the former home of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It is located on Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse in the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx, New York, a short distance from its origin ...

, Fordham University, the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

, and the

Bronx Zoo The Bronx Zoo (also historically the Bronx Zoological Park and the Bronx Zoological Gardens) is a zoo within Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area and is the largest metropolitan zoo in ...

are all nearby. It is close to the New York City Subway's at Kingsbridge Road (

IND Concourse Line The Concourse Line is an IND rapid transit line of the New York City Subway system. It runs from 205th Street in Norwood, Bronx, primarily under the Grand Concourse, to 145th Street in Harlem, Manhattan. It is the only B Division line, and a ...

) and the at Kingsbridge Road (

IRT Jerome Avenue Line The IRT Jerome Avenue Line, also unofficially known as IRT Woodlawn Line and IRT Burnside Avenue Line is an A Division New York City Subway line mostly along Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. Originally an Interborough Rapid Transit Company-operated r ...

). The

New York City Bus MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. , MTA Regional Bus Operations ru ...

routes are also nearby.

Design

The library contains over 300,000 volumes, including the New York Public Library’s central collection of Hispanic/Latino and Puerto Rican heritage works. The building is designed for the digital technology and social/civic functions as well as for books; it contains reading areas, a 150-person

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

, computer rooms, staff offices, conference rooms, and a public gallery/gathering area, divided among the floors: *Basement or

concourse A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space. The term is not limited to places where there are literally pathways or roadways or tr ...

level - auditorium and writing center. *Ground floor - Teen center and main circulation desk. *Second floor - Children's floor *Third floor - Adult circulating materials *Fourth floor - Reference materials with computer desks *Partial fifth floor - Career services center and conference room. The library also offers classes to the community including financial and career services to help people manage their money and improve their resume-writing in the pursuit of jobs.

Facade

The building is steel-framed and uses diverse materials in its construction that contrast with each other. The building is intended to be inviting on the interior and bold on the exterior. The exterior face of the library includes a multi-story glazed glass curtain wall (which stretches four stories and

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...

s out from the main body of the library to dominate the facade's front elevation). Water-treated

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

panels are used on the rest of the facade and also extend into the interior of the library on the fourth floor towards the terrace. The signature swooping roof is clad in

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

paneling on the exterior and

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

veneer on the interior.

Maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

softens many of the other surface cladding. The swooping roofline also contributes to visibility and also allows a partial fifth floor for the building while also following setback regulations for the block.

Interior

While the public areas are lit by the glazing on the front elevation, skylights above staff offices in the building's rear provide daylight for library workers. To help keep the library floors open, circulation is pushed to the back of the building as well. The main stair wraps around the elevator and is framed by a translucent glass wall to provide daylight. Patrons are expected to move through the library from back to front; from the stairs, through the stacks, and finally to the lounging and reading areas that are situated along the curtain wall. The main stair at the back of the library has a frosted channel glass wall, steel handrails, and

linoleum Linoleum, sometimes shortened to lino, is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), pine resin, ground cork dust, sawdust, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canva ...

flooring. This floor surface is extended to other areas of the building in contrast with the

terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...

and carpeting that weather the high foot traffic hardily.Russell Fortmeyer,
Let the Sun Shine In: A light-filled library becomes a dynamic meeting place for an underserved community
" (January 2007). '' GreenSource Magazine''. Bronx Library Center second floor interior

Bronx Library Center second floor interior

The Bronx Library Center is LEED Silver-certified and is the first "green" library in New York City; it includes many sustainable architecture features. Approximately 40 percent of materials used in the construction of the library were manufactured locally (within 500 miles of the site). The majority of materials produced by the demolition of the Con Edison building on site before the library were recycled to be used in off-site locations. The library itself is composed of roughly 20 percent recycled material. In addition to using environmentally safe materials, chemical release into the atmosphere is further mitigated by water-cooled

chiller A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid coolant via a vapor-compression, adsorption refrigeration, or absorption refrigeration cycles. This liquid can then be circulated through a heat exchanger to cool equipment, or another p ...

s. The mechanical HVAC systems help provide building energy use of 20 percent less than code requires. The energy-efficient lighting systems and the extensive use of sunlight are perhaps the boldest sustainable features of the library. The glazed curtain wall is composed of glass with a low

U-value In the context of construction, the R-value is a measure of how well a two-dimensional barrier, such as a layer of insulation, a window or a complete wall or ceiling, resists the conductive flow of heat. R-value is the temperature difference pe ...

for better insulating properties on the interior of the building. At times there may be too much daylight along the perimeter reading areas along the wall, so there are mechanized

nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pe ...

mesh shades to soften the light and

light shelves A light shelf is a horizontal surface that reflects daylight deep into a building. Light shelves are placed above eye-level and have high-reflectance upper surfaces, which reflect daylight onto the ceiling and deeper into the space. Light shelve ...

that bounce some of the strongest light off of the surface and push it deeper into the spaces.

Photocell Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are sensors of light or other electromagnetic radiation. There is a wide variety of photodetectors which may be classified by mechanism of detection, such as photoelectric or photochemical effects, or b ...

sensors on the ceilings react to daylight levels and automatically change electric lighting intensities accordingly to save energy used. Overall, 75 percent of the interior spaces meet LEED criteria for the ratio of daylight to illuminated light.

History

For more than 75 years, the Fordham Library Center at 2556 Bainbridge Avenue, served the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

before the new center opened in 2006. The library was part of a public library system built in the United States, supported by donations from wealthy businessman

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

. As part of the Carnegie library system it followed the philosophy of being accessible and free to all people with an emphasis on access and service to working class Americans. The library opened in 1923 and saw multiple expansions and renovations over the decades to continue serving a rapidly growing community. As immigrants (primarily of Irish, Italian and Jewish heritage) moved into the Bronx from

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, they used the library to learn to read and write English and become acclimated to American culture.Glenn Collins,
New Bronx Library Meets Old Need
(January 16, 2006), ''New York Times''. Compared to main branch libraries in the other

outer boroughs New York City is composed of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of New York State, making New York City the largest U.S. municipality situated in mult ...

, the Bronx building was significantly smaller taking up only three floors at a total of roughly 27,500 square feet. A renovation in 1956 proved to be the last; it would take nearly 50 years before enough money was raised to build a new, bigger, much needed building. The Fordham Library Center officially closed its doors to the public in November 2005. Two months later the Bronx Library Center opened right around the corner. It was the goal of the New York Public Library and the architects who designed the new library branch in the Bronx to continue the tradition of the accessible library model established by Carnegie. It would remain a welcoming place of learning for a new generation of immigrants primarily from the Caribbean and Latin America with Spanish being the new dominant language. A bigger piece of land was needed to accommodate the new building. Around the corner from the old Carnegie library was the site of a

Con Edison Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 ...

building that closed in 1999; the building components were mostly recycled or sold for scraps to fund demolition. After a long fund-raising push in the late 1990s, with contributions from

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an officia ...

and allocation of funds by former

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Rudolph Giuliani, the New York Public Library acquired the site for the new library in 2001.Heather Haddon,
Bronx Library Center No Longer a Fairy Tale
(January 26, 2006), ''Norwood News'.

Gallery

File:Bronx Library Center Concourse stair.jpg, ''Portrait of a Young Reader'', by

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (born 1961, Madrid, Spain) is an American Conceptual art, conceptual artist known for multidisciplinary, socially oriented sculpture, video and Installation art, installations and urban Community arts, community-based proje ...

, flanking the Concourse level stair File:Bronx Library Center Elevation.jpg, Front/Kingsbridge elevation File:Bronx Library Center main entrance.jpg, Main entrance off Kingsbridge Road File:Bronx Library Center Puerto Rican Heritage Collection.jpg, Puerto Rican Heritage Collection room File:Bronx Library Center interior ceiling.jpg, Fourth floor swooping ceiling view

References

Notes

External links

* {{Libraries in New York City New York Public Library branches Libraries in the Bronx Tourist attractions in the Bronx Education in the Bronx Fordham, Bronx