See Inside Midtown's Newly Renovated Mid-Manhattan Library

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — After the pandemic delayed its opening for more than a year, the Midtown library branch formerly known as the Mid-Manhattan library has opened to the public after an enormous renovation— and photos show the sleek new space that awaits patrons.

Now known as the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library for the charity that helped pay for the $200 million project, the branch has been based since 1981 in a century-old department store building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 40th Street — steps away from the iconic New York Public Library Main Branch.

The Niarchos Foundation branch is a circulating library, holding about 400,000 books and other materials that it shares among the NYPL's branches across Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.

We’ve got a new look! Explore @NYPL’s newly renovated Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL). https://t.co/93jSaGBAT6 pic.twitter.com/d8QXbdwfZI
— Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, NYPL (@NYPLSNFL) June 1, 2021

With an annual circulation of 2 million items and 1.7 million visits per year, it is the biggest and busiest branch in the NYPL system.

Over the years, conditions at the branch deteriorated, and the NYPL announced plans to sell it off to pay for repairs to the main branch. After an outcry, it dropped those plans in 2014 and vowed instead to renovate the Mid-Manhattan branch.

That work began in 2017, forcing the Mid-Manhattan Library to close temporarily and move some of its services to the Stephen A. Schwarzman building across the street.

Spread across eight floors and 180,000 square feet, the new space includes a "long room" with five levels of open, browsable book stacks and connected floors of classrooms and educational programs; large spaces for children, meetings and general public use; and a brand-new rooftop terrace — the only publicly accessible rooftop in Midtown.

That terrace, built in a new addition atop the building, will open later this year as part of the system's phased reopening, and will include a cafe and event center.

I’m excited to start my morning at the reopening of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library.

This space is beautiful and ready to welcome back New Yorkers. pic.twitter.com/YcQuoyvJo2
— Keith Powers (@KeithPowersNYC) June 1, 2021

The renovated library was designed by the Dutch architect Francine Houben, known as a "library whisperer" in part for her work at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C.

Work was completed in time for the library's planned May 2020 reopening, but it was pushed back by a year due to the pandemic. (The first floor, however, has been open since July).

Tuesday afternoon, the library opened its first four floors and began allowing timed browsing and computer use, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

It is open Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.