Thursday, February 3, 2011

Frank Lloyd Crap Library coming to LIC!

From the NY Times:

The building’s beguiling appearance — with giant free-form windows carved out of an 80-foot-tall rectangular facade of rough aluminum — should make it an instantly recognizable landmark. Seen from Manhattan, it will have a haunting presence on the waterfront, flanked by the red neon Pepsi-Cola sign to the north and the remnants of an abandoned ferry terminal to the south. At dusk the library’s odd-shaped windows will emit an eerie glow, looking a bit like ghosts trapped inside a machine. And late at night, when the building is dark, spotlights will illuminate its pockmarked facade and the windows will resemble caves dug into the wall of a cliff.

Only at the site itself, however, will the optimism driving Mr. Holl’s design come into focus. The library will stand at the western edge of Queens West, a soulless mix of generic apartment towers and barren streets built up in the last decade or so that has neither the dilapidated charm of the old manufacturing neighborhoods to the east nor the density of a real urban neighborhood. (The development’s one saving grace is a narrow park that snakes along the riverfront; its steel gantries, once used for loading boats, are an ode to the area’s industrial past.)

Mr. Holl ’s design is not about escaping this world but transforming it into something more poetic. Approaching from the towers across the street, visitors will enter a tranquil reading garden, a little paradise walled off from the gloomy scene that surrounds it. Ginkgo trees will shade the garden, partly blocking the view of the towers. As visitors move closer to the library, they will be able to see through the lobby windows and out over a reflecting pool and the riverfront park. Other odd-shaped windows will allow diagonal glimpses up through the building and out to the sky.

...the overscaled cut-out openings are powerfully metaphorical. They suggest the desire to expose private, interior worlds to public scrutiny, and — by seeming to undermine the buildings’ structural stability — they evoke an unstable, ever-changing world.


Um, ok.

23 comments:

georgetheatheist said...

These days, who needs a library anymore?

Free books

Snake Plissskin said...

Funny how that neighborhood is getting a library (and schools an ....) while the rest of Queens has to deal with overcrowded shopworn facilities.

Maybe cause its trust fund babies and not immigrants or working class poeple?

But one thing is certain: its YOUR taxes helping people that don't even live here....while YOUR family is getting shortchanged.

Isn't development good?

Anonymous said...

I thought Queens West was mixed income

Anonymous said...

Wait... didn't they just pull all the funding for new book purchases in queens??? But they have money for the tower people???

Anonymous said...

here come the white people.

Anonymous said...

Wow, people complaining about a library being built!!This is actually a cool looking building, and much more interesting that the highrises. The new library has nothing to do with trust fund babies. Believe it or not there are alot of people who live in Hunters point that don't live in the highrises and are working class as you put it, me included. Do we not deserve to have a library? Besides, anyone who lives in Queens can use it. This library was supposed to be built several years ago so the money for it, quite a bit from the developers as a result of allowing them to build higher, has been sitting around. The schools that get built will be for all district 30 children. The current school is over crowded too. There will be a new elementary, middle and high school built over the next couple of years.

JOE said...

I dont understand where the "Frank Lloyd" comes into play in this story?
The building design does'nt resemble anything that Frank Lloyd Wright designed and the reference in the headline is completely useless.
Good job....whoever wrote the story.

Queens Crapper said...

I guess you haven't been following the blog for all that long. Frank Lloyd Crap is our cartoon version of a starchitect that builds hideous crapola.

Anonymous said...

Anon#4, I think the real concern is if the Queens Public Library has had numerous budget cuts over the past couple of years, why couldn't some of that money be allocated to help the organization as a whole? With (6)six libraries in the LIC & Astoria area, is this really necessary? http://www.queenslibrary.org/index.aspx?section_id=12&page_id=303

Anonymous said...

It's not crap, it's postmodern.

Anonymous said...

It's postmodern crap.

Crap Moderne.

Anonymous said...

The New York Times pays someone money to write that crap.

Anonymous said...

wth! The first design exercise at any design school during your first Freshman week at school, is to create an eroded cube form. Very sad that the city is taking a true steaming pile of crap in LIC Queens.

Anonymous said...

I thought that the QBPL didn't have any money? how come they got money for this but not to pay people?

Helen said...

Will there be any books in this Crap Masterpiece or is this being built for some to "admire" the building?

Helen said...

George ~

Thanks for that link.

Helen said...

A MOMA exhibit ~

http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=81631

Anonymous said...

Yes exactly theres Queens library cuts all over the place and hours cut everyday but theres money for this museum? And placed in the tucked away corner where the yuppies dont know the history of what their living on. A superfund site, or it should have been designated that.

It's rather predictable though. If it was meant for the whole "community" then it should have been built by 11th st, or close to the Queensbridge houses where theres nothing for people over there that are from here.

It's convenient though for the entitled gentrified monoculture crowd next to the East River just for views sake. And you wonder why the police hate your little pseudo Battery Park soulless attitude.

Anonymous said...

Someone living in a FLW building called him that the sky window was leaking, so FLW said "move your chair". Here's the quote

Anonymous said...

Capital funds are used for new buildings, and those are separate from the OTPS funds that are used to buy books. I don't think one can move funds back and forth. (Well, maybe if your name is Madoff...)

Anonymous said...

If anyone has visited one of the Queens libraries these days, they would know immediately how much they have been neglected. I spent my grammar school days in these buildings and to revisit them now in the states the are in is heartbreaking.

We don't need another library. We need to nourish the ones we already have.

Anonymous said...

anyone i know who lives i the area is not a trust fund baby, those people live in manhattan or brooklyn. Most of the people I know are youg, educated and smart enought to pay 30-40% less for an apartment that is closer to midtown than most of their manhattan options.

Listen people, these are people who you actually want to live in queens. Wyhat did those towers actually replace? dilapidated old houses? Old warehouses? Seriously, for the fist time in my life I like another area besides north eeast queens.

I will add my 2 cents on the design......allelujah that there is actually some interesting architecture in NY again. would someone prefer the fake colonial look? Or the classic tan brick 1970's style?

Queens Crapper said...

"Listen people, these are people who you actually want to live in queens."

Why? They aren't going to stay. Why not invest in people who plan to invest in communities for the long term?