New York Public Library - Main Branch
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York
Mechanical and Electrical Engineers
Completion Date: 1985

Architect: Davis Brody Associates


The renovation of the Gottesman Gallery was the first of a series of privately funded restoration and adaptive re-use projects at the main branch of the New York Public Library. The space had been previously occupied as overflow office space. It had been crudely finished with homosote partitions and surface mounted raceway without regard to the marble and wood finishes of the original 1912 Carerre and Hastings design.


The new program is for changing exhibition space designed to meet the standards of lending institutions around the world. AltieriSeborWieber LLC was given the challenge to create new infrastructure to achieve this.

The space directly below was occupied by the original library ventilation system, much of it having been abandoned. A new mechanical space was created. In the south basement of the library a new chiller plant was commissioned. The cooling tower was placed in a well so as not to be visible from the street.

The original cast iron radiators were removed and the grilles reused as points of supply air. A new constant volume air handling system was provided with museum grade humidification and filtration.

Field probes revealed that the original wooden ceiling was suspended and contained flat areas, which were plaster. By opening access in the plaster panels, a new electrical distribution was possible to new track lighting and monopoints without disturbing the original wood paneling.

Small rectangular sections of marble were removed from the floor and replaced with removable access panels to allow new power, lighting, and security wiring to be run to free standing exhibit casework.