I’ve had strong issues – complaints – with the way the planning for the Main Library unfolded, particularly the design, which I felt was too small which meant that the building is inflexible to accommodate changes in community needs, that it made assumptions about how ebooks would displace actual books, that the library missed an opportunity to create an environmentally sustainable building and a structure that would be the basis of civic pride and community spirit for generations.
The difference between a minimalist project that might serve for a couple of decades and a more ambitious one, if I remember correctly, would have worked out to about $25 a year in taxes.
To say I was skeptical of the result is an understatement.
But after 20 years of starts and stops and two years of construction, the new building opened on Sunday, Oct. 30, to great praise and appreciation.
I can put myself in the camp of appreciating the new building.
I am willing to concede that the new building is the best result given the budgetary constraints of a beggarly bond.
It is minimalist but functional, and certainly will become less “institutional” when the library’s artwork is restored.
The building maximizes every square inch of space and is ergonomic in that it offers an environment that is comfortable and user friendly.
Most appealing is how the sight-lines have been opened up to take advantage through big picture windows and magnificent new seating areas out to the gorgeous landscape of Udalls Pond, beginning with the entranceway that gives you a clear line to the outside.
The library is bright, with easy flow. The stacks, where they don’t support the mezzanine, are half the height, to open up the views and let the light stream through.
One nice consideration — thanks to Carol Frank’s suggestion: the new energy-efficient windows are specially made so that birds can see them and don’t crash.
There are sitting areas virtually wrapping the building along the pond with gorgeous views through picture windows; a balcony that overlooks the pond, and two beautiful group study rooms that are on the main floor.
Many in the community will be delighted to see that Levels looks almost exactly as it did with the familiar seating areas kept intact ,except everything is new and upgraded, with an ambitious new lighting system.
The facility shows respect for the levels program and its importance to a large segment of our young adult community for whom levels has been such a vital part of their lives.
The warren of dark, stuffy hallways, useless spaces and depressing meeting rooms, and decrepit community room in the lower level have been completely opened up and all that space put to excellent use.
Instead of a community room in that lower level, there is the self-contained children’s room, with its own entrance from the lower parking lot, and again, a massive amount of windows, making it a pleasing environment.
Nothing fancy, but it will serve its purpose. The lower level also has a history room, community rooms, and the open lobby area which serves as a gallery.
Where the children’s room had been on the main level is now the community room, accommodating approximately the same number of people, though with a much more horizontal configuration that I am assured will still allow sightlines to films.
It cleverly has a special entrance/exit so that performances can take place when the main library is closed. Also, the audio/visual room, much more accommodating that the crowded, sequestered area before, is right at the main entrance.
The new building accommodates the now nearly ubiquitous use of technology and new media. There are various access points to connect wireless — whether in front of a window or in Levels or in the children’s room.
Perhaps the best of all is yet to come — thanks largely to a legacy grant from Ann Hyde, who died in June 2014, the Ann Hyde Memorial Children’s Garden promises to be spectacular.
It is expected to be completed in the spring of 2017.
Certainly the community, who turned out in force for the official opening on Sunday, Oct. 30 were thrilled with the newest community facility.
The library board members deserve accolades and our appreciation for their extraordinary hard work — made all the more harder by working for about a year without an official Executive Director.
I am deeply saddened that Varda Solomon, who poured heart and soul into the project, lost her reelection, but this puts the onus on the incoming trustees, Douglas (Gee-Kang) Hwee, who defeated her (275-218) and Rebecca T. Miller who won election to fill the vacancy by outgoing trustee Josie Pizer, to take up the torch.
Challenges remain for our library, as every library — to balance technology and new media with preservation of traditional media that feels comfortable and reassuring — and yes, has that special textural feel.
Its role as a storehouse and center for information, knowledge and heritage, with being a place for community, for face-to-face human interaction — and balancing its function of supplying information (books, media) with programming.
These require choices in allocation of financial and physical resources and in the professionals who the library hires.
“The Great Neck Library is the cornerstone and heart of the community,” Kathy Giotsas, the executive director, wrote in the Grand Opening Journal. “In person and online, we connect people to a whole world of ideas and information. Libraries offer the insight of the past as well as the promise of the future.”
The library is a reflection of our civic pride, a center for lifelong learning, a community gathering place, a place that serves “as an equalizer, offering access to materials and information to all people.”
