Critic Finds Merits in Brooklyn Public Library Redevelopment Plans

"Two proposals to sell and develop local library sites are wending through the Brooklyn Public Library pipeline, and, predictably, opponents have manned the barricades, citing the usual arguments about selling off public land to rapacious developers," reports New York Times Architecture Critic Michael Kimmelman before providing a review that trends toward a judgment of "promising" for the proposals.

"One plan envisions updating, but shrinking, a branch in Brooklyn Heights built in the 1960s. The other overhauls a popular, decrepit branch, from the 1970s, in Sunset Park. Both involve housing, a fair chunk of it subsidized, mostly on top of new storefront libraries."

The review of the proposals provides a lot of background and history on the art of the deal when it comes to libraries as real estate assets. One sign of a new era in library planning for New York is the de Blasio Administration's ongoing project to develop a ten-year capital investment plan for the system, the first of its kind. Kimmelman recommend that such public investments provide an excellent opportunity to "double down on the Design and Construction Excellence initiative, which hires local architects for public buildings."