Re-Envisioning New York City Branch Libraries

JLP+D was selected — in partnership with Marble Fairbanks and Leah Meisterlin — to participate in Re-Envisioning Branch Libraries, a study sponsored by the Center for an Urban Future and the Architectural League of New York. The study proposed new programmatic, financial, and architectural possibilities to generate revenue to meet unfunded capital needs through redevelopment. As part of this interdisciplinary team, JLP+D evaluated market fundamentals and real estate analytics to identify potential policy strategies and opportunities for creating value while meeting public needs.

The project developed new tools for planning, based on development potential and zoning analyses, that help visualize and balance priorities to strengthen the libraries in the face of changing capital needs, neighborhood growth, demographic changes, and resiliency efforts. The team performed a rigorous analysis of neighborhood, zoning, and building-level data contextualized in an overall understanding of political and stakeholder interests to tap underutilized sites that could serve as community hubs and resource access points.

In a subsequent phase of work, the team was engaged by the Robin Hood Foundation to build on the previous study and perform a feasibility analysis that identified — from 209 separate branches — the specific sites with the greatest opportunity in each borough to meet unfunded capital needs through new residential development given economic fundamentals, community need, and physical context.