Building of the Day: 10 Grand Army Plaza
Editors note: This post has been updated to include new images. The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy. Address: 10 Grand Army Plaza Name: Central Branch,…
Editors note: This post has been updated to include new images.
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy.
Address: 10 Grand Army Plaza
Name: Central Branch, Brooklyn Public Library
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights
Year Built: 1937-1941
Architectural Style: Modern Classical
Architects: Alfred M. Githens and Francis Keally
Landmarked: Yes
Why chosen: The Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is one of Brooklyn’s best Modernist buildings. What many people don’t realize is that this building represents the finished product of a library building begun in 1908. Brooklyn architect Raymond Almirall was commissioned to build a Beaux-Art classical style building that would complement the Arch, the entrance to the park, and the Brooklyn Museum. But in 1913, the funds dried up, leaving a large empty foundation dug, and a west wing on Flatbush Avenue. The uncompleted project sat there for 30 years, until the city got around to resuming the project in 1937. (You think public works projects are slow now?) By this time, Beaux-Arts architecture out, it was the age of sleek, modern, machine age design. A new team of architects, Githens & Keally, were brought in. Confined to the foundations and wall already there, they designed a great library in what is called the Modern Classical style. The Flatbush Ave wing was stripped of its marble sheathing, and worked into the new design. The entrance was redesigned to curve in and welcome visitors. The ornamentation reflects the Art Deco/Moderne sensibility and love of design in relief. The reliefs on either side of the doors were designed by Carl Jennwein, and the bronze screen is by Thomas Hudson Jones. Quotations about seeking knowledge welcome the reader into the library. The cast zinc eagle just inside the entrance once graced the old Brooklyn Eagle Building, razed for Cadman Plaza. Through the doors lies one of the best modernist interiors in NYC, and a great library.
[instagram_embedding url=”https://www.instagram.com/p/BKGZa1cjlsv/?taken-by=bklynlibrary”]
The older i get , the more that saying is true. I was class of 90″ Good times . Class of
I went to Murrow…small world.
That would be them !I remember coming home from murrow highschool and members of the gang would be in diffrent cars of the D and Q Trains just looking to start trouble .
“does anyone remember the “autobots” and the “decepticons” ?”
-newdad
I remember the De-cepts. The one’s I knew of were a black gang in the late 80’s/early 90’s that used to rumble and (sometimes) play football against white gangs from Midwood and Bensonhurst.
I love the Central Library! Although the Dweck Center only opened in 2007, my understanding is that the raw space had already been carved out, with supporting pillars etc in place, when the building first went up with the thought of creating an underground auditorium some time in the future. The programming there is fantastic btw — readings, movies, live music. I also dig the much improved plaza which now has food vendors and free wireless.
Btw, the Brooklyn Public Library is a completely independent entity from the NYPL. This means it often gets short-changed when fund-raising because donors don’t always know that money given to the NYPL doesn’t get shared with the BPL. If you want to help the BPL — and especially the more vulnerable branch locations — please consider giving. For school students and folks doing job-searches, the library is a real lifeline.
It’s a good thing the library was built more than 50 years ago. Since it matches the architectural style of absolutely nothing else in the neighborhood– much less Brooklyn– people would be up in arms if it were to be proposed today.
Say what you will about the Meier building, but nothing on the CH/PH side of GAP looks even remotely similar architecturally… not even the buildings on Eastern Parkway, most of which have very different architectural styles.
I’ve been told that the library was intended to evoke an open book with the spine facing Grand Army Plaza and the two wings–along Eastern Parkway and Flatbush–the front and back covers, so the book is opening toward the rest of Brooklyn. It sure looks that way, but perhaps that’s fanciful revisionism.
If you use the City Planning Department’s Community Board map for your neighborhood definition, the BPL (and the Brooklyn Museum and Botanic Garden) is in the Prospect Park SHARED AREA, shared by Boards 8 (Prospect Heights, Crown Heights North); 9 (Crown Heights South); and Board Six (Park Slope to Red Hook). So you’re all correct.
As this always functioned as my library during my boyhood, it’s definitely in Crown Heights. As is the Brooklyn Museum, half of Grand Army Plaza (including “On Prospect Park”), all of Eastern Parkway, the Botanical Garden, etc., etc., etc.