The New York Public Library’s popular Mid-Manhattan branch is getting a major makeover.
The branch, located at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street, will have a completely revamped interior that features 400,000 books, five floors of open, browseable book stacks, two floors of meeting rooms, a rooftop terrace that will be free and open to the public and 17,000 square feet for reading and studying.
Tony Marx, the president of the New York Public Library, said the branch, which circulates 2 million items annually, has always been a center of learning for the community and the improvements will enrich visitors.
“It will be a model for how libraries can strengthen communities,” he said in a statement.
Work on the $200 million project is slated to begin in 2018. The branch will close temporarily sometime in late 2017 but users can head to four different branches to access the materials that are available at the midtown location.
In October, the NYPL reopened the reading room at its main branch at 42nd Street after a $12 million, 2-year renovation.
