NY Post
A long-awaited $41-million Queens library that opened last month is plagued with an encyclopedia’s worth of issues — including leaky ceilings and a not-so-soundproof quiet room, The Post has learned.
Long Island City’s decade-in-the-making Hunters Point Library is already showing signs of wear, with a Post reporter recently eyeing large cracks on multiple floors — including one that stretched about 10 feet — and water damage in some areas.
“When it rains, we have leaks,” a librarian said, blaming the problem on an as-yet-un-opened rooftop “reading garden” with panoramic views of the city.
The new building’s sorry state is the culmination of nearly 10 years of design and construction. Plans for the branch were completed in 2010, but the ground-breaking did not come until 2015. The book-lender finally opened Sept. 24.
The lit house, designed by Steven Holl Architects, came under fire earlier this month because a fiction section could only be reached by a steep staircase — in violation of federal accessibility requirements.
Staffers have since moved the tomes, but that area is now just dead space. A frustrated librarian said she didn’t know if it would be remodeled “but we won’t be putting any books there again.”
“We might turn [it] into sitting areas, but no one knows yet,” she said.
Queens Library spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon said the branch is assessing the situation with the architects and the city’s Department of Design and Construction, which oversaw and managed the project.
But that’s not the only design flaw librarians have had to deal with.
A curved wall in the children’s section resembling a quarter-pipe skateboard ramp had to be blocked off by rolling bookshelves to make sure kids didn’t hurt themselves climbing it.
15 comments:
"blocked off by rolling bookshelves to make sure kids didn’t hurt themselves climbing it"
What?
We didn't climb bookshelves when we were kids.
What kind of shitty parents raise such animals?
Is this a library or daycare - play center for such feral undisciplined, unsupervised brats ?
No worries, they’ll do a better a job with the new jails.
We don’t want panoramic views of the city. WE WANT A LIBRARY!
A $40 million dollar library for hipsters and millenials. Why should anyone care?
$41 million spent so someone can read a book?
Sounds like a Wollman Skating Rink problem, who ya gonna call, The Trump Man. Make New York Great Again, get rid of your mayor.
SURPRISE! MORE QUEENS CRAP! WILL WE EVER LEARN? NO!
Meanwhile the Carnegie library at Astoria which was built in 1904 has NEVER been wheelchair accessible - in ANY part of the building. Imagine paying your taxes your whole life and then when you're a wheelchair bound senior - you cant get into your library because there's a 20 ft high staircase there... maybe they can wheel themselves over to a neighborhood Queens Library actually cares about. Priorities!
"Carnegie library at Astoria which was built in 1904 has NEVER been wheelchair accessible"
So why is that suddenly a problem now ?
Anyway new library's no longer have books, its all computers, play tables and video games.
If you books its best to head to a Salvation army store or seniors citizens centers
Why do we need libraries anyway? Most of the stuff you can do online anymore. Even the poor people have internet and iPhones these days.
See that powdery substance in the cracks ?
The concrete was a shit mix of salty beach sand, recycled garbage and is now disintegrating.
It also appears it may be a post tension slab.
If so may contains faults in the high tension cables running through the shit cheap concrete to increase strength and reduce cracking.
A fail with post tension is like a explosion that can kill or dismember many people.
What cheating, crummy engineering & sloppy workmanship, some people belong in jail
How did the design get approved if so many parts of the building is non-ADA accessible? Why was the building allowed to open with water leaks and huge cracks on the floor?
The only real surprise here is the staircase -how that got overlooked.....
The rest is typical 'punch list" stuff.
Cracks, spalling, faulty HVAC, electrical, etc.
-Every- new building goes through this and the G.C and vendors have to make good.
Rob in Manhattan
forget the Queens Library, just don't go there. It's a free for all and free babysitting for little gangbangers and do nothing staff who troll the internet. It's dangerous at the library. Why do you think a 79 year old man was beaten up directly in front of a Queens Library? The librarians let the teenagers and middle schoolers act like animals. The older gentleman probably said something to them and they wailed on him, breaking his femur. All the while laughing like demented chimpanzees. Truly horrific. Thanks so much Queens Library with your New Americans Program. Let's dump on the Old Americans and push them aside. Having them attacked right outside one of your libraries. You must be so proud of yourself.
If your elderly and white you need a armed guard or gun to go to a library.
Bastard animals make up most your middle schoolers and gangbangers today.
Yes, they will Pearl Harbor, sucker punch, kick and attack you outside if you say something, much like they do white kids after school.
Post a Comment