New York Public Library

The New York Public Library was founded in 1895 and comprises 92 locations in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. AKRF has provided a range of planning, engineering, and environmental services for the library system, including the New York Public Library’s Central Library Plan, for which we prepared the Environmental Assessment Statement. The CLP would relocate the collections and services of the circulating Mid-Manhattan Library at 455 Fifth Avenue and the Science, Industry, and Business Library at 188 Madison Avenue into the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 476 Fifth Avenue – a research library and the central building in the NYPL system.

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development was the lead agency for environmental review, which concluded with a Negative Declaration in December 2013. Our studies included historic and cultural resources, pedestrians, and public transit. AKRF also coordinated review of the project by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation pursuant to the State Historic Preservation Act, as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building is a National Historic Landmark, listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, and a designated New York City Landmark.

AKRF has also provided noise consulting services for several branches of the New York Public Library as part of a citywide program managed by the New York City Department of Design and Construction to update public library mechanical systems.