The Hunters Point Library in Long Island City is on its way to becoming a reality. Community members dedicated the now-barren lot, above, adjacent to Gantry State Park, on Friday.
The riverside site will be the home to a modern edifice designed by renowned architect Steven Holl, featuring an environmentally friendly layout, a rooftop terrace and panoramic views of the city skyline.
At the dedication, students from PS 78, top, planted trees that will grow up along with the library, helping to transform this once-industrial neighborhood into a place filled with families, businesses and green spaces.
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D-Sunnyside), who was late to the dedication because of car trouble, said, with a laugh, her car served as a sort of a metaphor for the project.
The plan, over a decade old, was a little slow in starting. Six months after Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside), former chief of external affairs officer for the Queens Public Library, was elected to the City Council, he allocated the last necessary $3 million needed for the building, but then the recession hit and the project had $3.7 million taken away.
But the community didn’t lose hope. Van Bramer and other speakers at the dedication emphasized LIC support — which relentlessly advocated for the building. In 2009 a friends of the library group formed — the first to charter before the library it serves. But now finally the $28 million library has all the monies in place to start.
— Josey Bartlett
