From the Daily News:
A trio of civic leaders is questioning the Queens Library’s decision to tear down its historic Elmhurst branch and replace it with a larger, modern facility.
Members of the Newtown Civic Association are also concerned about traffic during and after construction in the congested neighborhood.
“It’s a design disaster,” said Robert Valdes Clausell, treasurer of the group and property manager of the Continental, a co-op tower located next to the library.
“How can you take a Carnegie library that is over 100 years old — one of only a few left in Queens — and not save at least part of it?” he asked, referring to the libraries built with funding from industrialist-turned-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
Clausell, Nicholas Dovas and Thomas McKenzie, the organization’s president, met with library officials last week to review their concerns.
But with demolition slated to start early next year, it’s unclear whether the plans will change.
17 comments:
You know how it is, somebody's cousin or other relative has to make a living...
I was in the book club for children when I was a youngster who frequented this library often during summer days and Saturdays during the school year. Repair or update the existing library - why rebuild in the internet era - it makes no sense. Save money to keep the staff and fund the upkeep of the building. It also has the beautiful garden in the front - very peaceful area to sit for the neighborhood folks and school kids - it's a library not a developers paradise!
Oh good, preserve a day care center full of can't-control-their-volume immigrant children.
So sad but this has been in the works for years. There simply isn't any chance that QPL is going to back down now - not unless the money isn't there for the plan.
Newtown Historical Society - lead the charge!
Hey, Four Boroughs! QCC! Queens Preservation Council! Borough Historian!
Yea, right.
Its that library capital budget again!
someone should look into that.
Watch out Richmond Hill - your beautiful Carnegie library building might be next on the "hit", er, renovation list.
So sad but this has been in the works for years. There simply isn't any chance that QPL is going to back down now - not unless the money isn't there for the plan.
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With their board of ... developers?
hahahahahhaha
See Cement Index under Democratic Dictionary.
Astoria's Carnegie Library is next.
I guess the leadership of Queens wants to erase the concept of giving back to the community and any monuments to that tradition.
Are there any WPA murals in there like in Astoria's branch?
I Guess this means it'll only be a matter of time before College Point's is also gone.
I Guess this means it'll only be a matter of time before College Point's is also gone.
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Instead of playing dead, do something different for a change.
Something useful can come from this. You can write to Four Boroughs, QCC, Queens Preservation Council, the Borough Historian and even Hist Dist Council.
Record their response. Share it here.
Then we can post paid any credibility from these groups and move on with a clean slate. Only then can we get some meaningful resistance to this recurring outrage that makes our borough notorious in polite circles.
The James Brooks WPA murals in the Woodside branch were obliterated in a rennovation in the 1970's. I dropped off a photo of one of them at the branch. link
Crappy hurts! Big push from weeklies to coral big praise for system. Lots of resentment out there.
IT IS AN UGLY LOOKING LIBRARY. TEAR IT DOWN AND BUILD A NEW ONE. I CAN BELIEVE PEOPLE WANT TO BE STUCK WITH THE OLD UGLY STRUCTURE.
Great civic leaders! Ask Robert and Nick what they did with 12 million!!
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