Kew Gardens Hills Library, New York Building, Project, Pictures, Architect, Design, Image

Kew Gardens Hills Library, New York City

NY Building Expansion & Renewal – design by WORK Architecture Company

Oct 19, 2017

Kew Gardens Hills Library Building in Queens

Apr 20, 2010

Kew Gardens Hills Building

Design: WORK Architecture Company

Address: 71-34 Main Street, Flushing, NY 11367

Phone: (718) 261-6654

The project is an 3,000SF expansion of an existing 1966 building into the front and side yards, and a complete renovation of the interior. Our goal was to create a building whose physical presence and expression can become a source of pride for the Kew Gardens Hills community and whose functional upgrades will guarantee the library’s continuing and growing importance there.

Kew Gardens Hills Library Building images : WORK Architecture Company

To emphasize the new addition and focus design efforts in the area of new construction, we conceived of the addition as a band of open rooms around the perimeter, to be used by all of the library’s user groups: adults, teens, children and staff – where “everyone gets a piece of the pie.” The bookshelves in this perimeter zone function as structure for the new roof; their radial layout – stretching outwards – emphasizes the open character of the public library. Capping the addition with a green roof creates a continuous loop of green with the existing gardens on the sides of the library.

The new façade is conceived of as a physical and metaphoric lifting up of the library’s exterior walls in order to broadcast the activities of the library to the outside. At the site’s main corner, the library reaches a monumental scale appropriate for its civic status. A second “mini peak” at the children’s corner provides them with kids’-size views to the south. Between the two peaks, the façade band dips down to provide privacy at the staff and book drop areas behind.

The geometry of the roof slopes allow for views of the green roof from the surrounding streets.

Kew Gardens Hills Library Building images : WORK Architecture Company

Made from glass fiber-reinforced concrete panels, the custom facade creates a rippled, curtain-like pattern of vertical folds that create a play of light and shadow and soften the primarily glassy exterior. Natural daylight will be provided directly by the large exterior windows and indirectly by the clerestory windows facing south and east, which will bounce off of the opaque interior surfaces.

The entrance is marked by an awning created by folding a section of this façade out over the street, reminiscent of a folded page in a book.

Kew Gardens Hills Library Building images / information WORK Architecture Company

Location: Kew Gardens Hills, New York City, USA