Central Library (Brooklyn Public Library)
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Brooklyn Public Library-Central Building
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The Central Library in August 2008
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| Location |
Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn, New York City |
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| Coordinates | 40°40′20″N 73°58′7″W / 40.67222°N 73.96861°WCoordinates: 40°40′20″N 73°58′7″W / 40.67222°N 73.96861°W |
| Area | 2.8 acres (1.1 ha) |
| Built | 1911-1940 |
| Architect | Raymond F. Almirall (1911); Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally (1935) |
| Sculptor | Thomas Hudson Jones and C. Paul Jennewein (bronze gateway) |
| Architectural style | Beaux-Arts and Art Moderne |
| NRHP Reference # | 01001446 |
| Added to NRHP | January 11, 2002 |
The Central Library of the Brooklyn Public Library, located at Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York City, contains over a million cataloged books, magazines, and multimedia materials. Each year, over one million people visit the library.
The facility, landmarked in 1997, boasts the state-of-the art S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture, a 189-seat auditorium that opened in 2007 and hosts lectures, readings, musical performances, and other events for people of all ages. The library's plaza, renovated during the construction of the Dweck Center, hosts concerts throughout the summer and has become a favorite outdoor destination for free wireless internet access.
The Shelby White and Leon Levy Information Commons opened in January, 2013. The space offers an integrated venue for individual work, public classes, private events, and meetings.
The Central Library's local history division, The Brooklyn Collection, holds over a million individual items including photographs, maps, manuscripts, Brooklyn Dodgers memorabilia and other ephemeral items.
Ground was broken for a Brooklyn central library on Prospect Park Plaza (Grand Army Plaza) in 1912. The design of the original architect Raymond Almirall called for a domed, four-story Beaux Arts building, similar in style to the nearby Brooklyn Museum. Escalating costs and political in-fighting helped slow construction throughout the decade. World War I and the Great Depression ensured that Almirall's building, whose Flatbush Avenue wing had been completed by 1929, would never be built.
In the 1930s, the architects Githens and Keally were commissioned to redesign the building, eliminating all the expensive ornamentation and the entire fourth floor. After much public and critical praise for the comparatively inexpensive Art Deco structure, construction recommenced in 1938. Almirall's building on Flatbush Avenue was largely demolished except for the frame. (Some of the original facade that faces in toward the library's parking lot is still visible.) Completed by late 1940, the Central Library opened to the public on February 1, 1941. It is regarded today as one of America's greatest Art Deco buildings.
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