New York City is giving its iconic Carnegie Libraries a makeover

At the turn of the 20th century, the steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie donated $5.2 million to New York to build libraries across the city. Leading architects of the time designed the branches, 67 in all, to look and function like civic temples with elaborate Beaux-Arts detailing, welcoming entrances, dignified reading rooms, and open stacks where patrons could freely browse. They quickly became important, and beloved, neighborhood establishments and remain so today. After more than a century of use, and ad hoc upgrades and adaptations that are also dated, the buildings are due for upgrades. 

Last year, the New York Public Library (NYPL) completed a $176 million renovation of five Carnegie Libraries in The Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. They’re pilots of Carnegie renovations to come. Spearheaded by the architecture firms Mitchell Giurgola, which also developed design standards for the renovations, and CannonDesign, the climate-sensitive and community-informed transformations are models for balancing historic architecture and contemporary use. “The buildings are such a part of the fabric of the community and we wanted to double down on that,” says Kerry Gould, director of capital planning at NYPL. “They needed love, and they got it.”

A new approach for old libraries

Public libraries are the rare institutions with near-universal approval. According to a Pew study, 94% of Americans age 16 or older believe libraries improve quality of life. Perhaps because of this, the city has entered another golden age of architectural invention around them. Affordable housing crowns branches in Sunset Park, Inwood, and Grand Concourse; a recently completed branch in Greenpoint, which replaced a too-small library dating from the 1970s, doubles as an environmental education center; and a glimmering composition by the local artist José Parlá envelops the new Far Rockaway branch. 

But ground-up contemporary buildings are only part of the story. The Carnegie renovations underscore how a preservation-focused approach can modernize the system while protecting important neighborhood landmarks and community anchors. As aging Carnegie Libraries become Apple stores, comedy clubs, and boutique hotels, or simply deteriorate until demolition is a foregone conclusion, New York is figuring out how to keep them—and keep them relevant.

“In architecture, ‘historic character’ used to be just about culture and preservation, and I think that’s really important,” says Carol Loewenson, an architect and partner at Mitchell Giurgola. “But saving what you have is also the most sustainable thing you can do. The continuity of old, new, and future is really what makes New York, and any place, thrilling.”

Carnegie libraries then and now

New York City has 216 library branches, which are managed by three systems: NYPL is responsible for 88 locations in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. (The Brooklyn Public Library oversees the borough’s 62 locations and the Queens Public Library has 66 outposts within its jurisdiction.) Of the 39 Carnegie Libraries originally within NYPL’s remit, 30 are still in operation. 

They face similar issues related to operations and relevance. To wit: They were constructed before the Americans with Disabilities Act; before teens, who are avid patrons, were considered a distinct age and cultural group (until the 1940s, you were either a child or an adult); and before climate change became an urgent issue. 

And while libraries maintain a mission to advance knowledge and strengthen communities, these institutions today do a lot more than circulate books; they serve as emergency cooling and warming centers, technology hubs where patrons can access computers and 3D printers, and more.

Because there are so many Carnegie Libraries in the city, the NYPL decided to approach their renovations systematically. Design standards could ensure stylistic consistency across the upgrades. It’s also practical: the more uniform the building management systems are, the easier repairs and maintenance are since crews have familiarity with the equipment. The standards include specifications for lighting, bookcases and millwork, circulation desks, how to integrate modern heating and cooling infrastructure, and methods for creating flexible-use space.

Before implementing these design standards, the NYPL handled Carnegie renovations differently. While the exteriors remained the same, interior overhauls looked like they belonged to different buildings. Renovations and repairs happened piecemeal as equipment reached the end of their useful life, and modifications accumulated to the point where changes obscured the buildings’ spirit. 

“Very often we are doing necessity repairs and you’re sort of cobbling things together,” Gould says.

Despite needing upgrades, the original Carnegie buildings were innovative a century ago and remain hallmarks of good library design today thanks to their large windows that bathed interiors in daylight, spacious reading rooms with high ceilings, a central circulation desk, natural materials, and movable furniture. 

“It seems so obvious, but people don’t always get it right with libraries,” Loewenson says. “And those fundamentals really do work. We’re doing an academic library right now and I just intuitively use the Carnegie standards and principles, and it just nails it. It’s kind of amazing.” 

The architects emphasized those details while introducing energy efficient building systems (like triple-pane windows and sensor-operated environmental controls), amenities to better serve library patrons (like teen rooms), and improved accessibility (like adding elevators and ramps). Additionally, the library commissioned artwork that connects to each branch’s respective community, based on intel from engagement sessions. 

Site-specific solutions

Each Carnegie library is different—some are freestanding structures, some are mid-block, and their sizes vary. While design standards informed the top-level approach for the renovations, “it’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing,” Loewenstein says. “You first figure out what you’ve got and then what the needs are and then you start adjusting.”

Historic preservation rules often informed how the architects approached the renovations. At 125th Street, a McKim, Mead & White branch dating to 1904, no additions could be visible from the street, which nixed moving all the mechanical systems to the roof. So instead, the team at CannonDesign, who oversaw this branch’s renovation, hunted for opportunities to make space inside. 

Caretaker apartments originally occupied the top floor of Carnegie Libraries (someone needed to feed the coal furnaces 24/7) and over time, these rooms became convenient locations for HVAC equipment. Meanwhile, air handlers and ductwork have become smaller and more efficient since they first went into the libraries. Because of this, the architects could condense the systems into a compact footprint and turn some of the back-of-house areas into public space. At 125th, they were able to squeeze a teen area as well as staff offices into the top floor. Now people, not just machinery, get to enjoy the dramatic double-height level illuminated by clerestory windows. 

“When we went into the design phase of these libraries, the amount of potential on the top floor, it was just incredible to see,” says Dan Sheen, an architect at CannonDesign. “It was about taking advantage of what was given to us and running iterations until we finally got to a point where it’s like, okay, this represents a modern space, but also pays homage to the original design when it was in its prime, too.”

Indeed, the renovated Carnegie Libraries look more like themselves, just better. They also perform at a higher level than before. 

The Port Richmond branch, designed in 1905 by Carrere & Hastings, architects of the NYPL’s famed Fifth Avenue flagship, is now LEED Silver certified. Sheen and his team looked to Passive House design strategies to retrofit the building, including modifying the masonry walls (they installed mineral wool insulation and a smart vapor barrier on the inside face) and triple-pane wood windows for a tight thermal seal. 

The Port Richmond reading room featured a slightly arched ceiling with ornamental crown moldings, which Sheen wanted to highlight. Instead of suspending a tangle of sprinkler systems, ductwork, and other life safety systems from the ceiling, he decided to drop the ceiling 12 inches and hide the infrastructure above it. The team consulted original drawings and also 3D scanned the detailing in order to faithfully recreate it. 

Similarly, they also hid infrastructure behind walls, effectively shrinking the space by six to eight inches on each side. Loewenstein and her team used similar techniques at the Hunts Point location, a Carrere & Hastings building from 1929. “There was more time in the design phase spent on what you don’t see, what’s hidden behind these walls than what the actual visitor experience is,” Sheen says. And instead of visually hefty rows of fluorescent lighting illuminating the reading rooms, there are now halo-like LED pendants throughout. 

Because the Carnegie Libraries are on the smaller side, figuring out how to accommodate new uses was a challenge. At the Hunts Point library, Mitchell Giurgola integrated folding glass walls and doors into the reading rooms to define space while maintaining visual cohesion and daylight. At the Melrose branch—which suffered a fire in the 1940s that reduced the four-story building to two—Mitchell Giurgola was able to construct a new level that’s dedicated to children. Since few original architectural details remained here, the design team integrated more contemporary elements, like floor-to-ceiling glass walls. 

Artwork was another important site-specific element for the renovations. NYPL hosted community engagement sessions with patrons to learn about what was most important to them and through this, they learned that the community around the Port Richmond branch, which is predominantly Hispanic, felt an affinity to butterflies and so a newly commissioned mural features the motif. “It really brings that sense of identity to the branch,” Gould says.

The future of NYC library renovations 

The standards Mitchell Giurgola developed aren’t limited to the Carnegie Libraries. The design principles are relevant across the system, and so NYPL is using them to guide renovations across structures with different pedigrees. 

Gould is currently working on an overhaul of the Edenwald library, a 1970s structure in the Bronx. It’s a squat “Lindsay Box,” the nickname for the inexpensive modular libraries constructed during the John V. Lindsay administration, with tiny windows. Gould plans to open the facade and better connect the interior to the neighborhood. “We’re using a lot of the same themes, like access to natural light,” she says.

With the five renovations now complete, NYPL hopes to receive additional capital funding from the city in order to modernize more Carnegie branches. “We want them to last for another hundred years,” Gould says. “As part of the fabric of New York, we think it’s just important to be stewards of these buildings and elevate them to what we think the public deserves.