![]() ![]() The waterfront made a similar statement six years later, when the 42-story Citylights condominium building brought 522 residences next to the bottling plant. In 1990, the 658-foot-tall Citibank Building at One Court Square introduced density and modernity to the Court Square district. By the end of the 20th century, it was but a shadow of its former glory.īut as factories crumbled along the once-busy streets, the first seeds of the neighborhood’s renaissance were planted. After World War II, the neighborhood’s industry went into decline. In 1938, Pepsi-Cola opened a bottling plant next to the gantries and addressed the business hub across the river with a now iconic 60-foot-tall, neon-lit sign. The gate-like, steel structures transferred goods on to Manhattan-bound floats. In 1925, two gantries opened at the western terminus of a freight rail branch that serviced the borough’s manufacturing district. Long Island City had been a busy industrial hub since the 19th century. The library’s site has been the neighborhood’s focal point for quite a while. Just as importantly, its function will service the decidedly residential, family-friendly Hunters Point neighborhood, where a series of new residential towers complement the blocks of densely packed rowhomes farther inland. The new branch at 47-40 Center Boulevard may be removed from the district’s resurgent core around Court Square, but its waterfront location opposite the United Nations and Midtown Manhattan, as well as its novel design, will make it into the iconic facility that will represent both the neighborhood and Queens as a whole. Unfortunately, the branch is underwhelming almost to the point of anonymity, tucked away in the rear annex of One Court Square, at a mid-block site on the sparsely traveled 45th Avenue. Its Court Square location puts it at the center of the borough’s civic core. The entire portion of the neighborhood south of the Queensboro Bridge/Queens Boulevard, which includes Hunters Point, Blissville, Court Square, and half of Queens Plaza, is serviced by just one branch. Another one is tucked away in a nondescript building within the deep interior of the Queensbridge Houses, the largest housing project in the country. Its most significant branch sits in a relatively new building at 38th Avenue, yet its presence is diminished by its location within an industrial no man’s land in Ravenswood, on the fringe between Long Island City and Astoria. But even prior to its meteoric growth, LIC has been in dire need of libraries. Since then, Queens’s westernmost neighborhood has added thousands of new residential units, with over ten thousand more on the way. The 2010 census counted 68,117 residents within Long Island City. The Steven Holl-designed Hunters Point Library will join the iconic gantries and the Pepsi-Cola Sign to form the borough’s new public face, while becoming a new focal point for the rapidly growing community. While Long Island City’s rebirth manifests itself through its skyrocketing skyline, its most significant public building steadily rises at the waterfront. and is open Monday through Saturday.Literacy is the cornerstone of modern society, and libraries stand as the foundations of thriving communities. The Hunters Point Library is located at 47-40 Center Boulevard in Long Island City, N.Y. There are also two reading gardens on site: one on the east entrance side of the building that is bordered by a low park office pavilion, and one on the building’s roof that offers panoramic views of the city. ![]() The building section is open and flowing to allow for the most energy-efficient design and the greatest amount of public green space on the site. The children’s area, teen area, and adult area can be clearly seen from the exterior of the building in the cuts of the east face of the building there is one facade opening for each area, but inside the programmatic divisions are fluid. The building’s interior uses bamboo as a building material to create a warm, inviting social space for the community. The glazed cuts in the facade also provide users with views towards the river and the city as they move up a series of bookshelf flanked stairs. The recently opened Queens Public Library at Hunters Point forgoes the recent trend of incorporating libraries into high-end residential towers and instead opts to stand independently on its 32,000 sf site along the East River.ĭesigned by Steven Holl Architects, the Hunters Point Library’s facade consists of exposed concrete and painted aluminum stamped with large amorphous windows to let in natural light. ![]()
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