Battery Park Gets a Green Library

The community library had been long in planning. Having Goldman-Sachs relocate to Battery Park City in 1995 and make sizable contributions to the community sealed the deal.

"The existence of this beautiful 10,000-square-foot library, which opened on March 18, prompts so many questions, including how could such state-of-the-art technologies be marshaled in service of the old-fashioned act of book reading?

Instead of the comforting mustiness of older libraries, the whole space is filled with oxygen and light, streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows and bouncing off the blond wood floors (made from lumber salvaged during the manufacturing of window frames, thank you)."

"They wanted as much as possible for this branch to be a showcase for how pleasant and how interesting a branch can be," said Tim Furzer, who oversaw the project for the firm 1100 Architect. It worked. "

View the slideshow with a special emphasis on children, their parents, and of course, green technology and materials.