The first new library built in Brooklyn in 40 years has opened at 9 Adams Street in DUMBO.
The $7 million 6,000 s/f library annex was developed as part of a deal the city struck with The Hudson Companies when it bought the former Brooklyn Heights Public Library site for $52 million in 2017.
The sale of the City-owned property enabled Hudson to build its mixed-use Cadman Plaza develop and providing funding for BPL to fit out a new Brooklyn Heights branch and upgrade other branch libraries throughout the borough, including the Adams Street annex.
The new branch is located in a leased space on the ground floor of a former factory building at 135 Plymouth St. under the Manhattan Bridge, with an entrance on Adams Street. The site fronts on Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Architecture firm WorkAC, which redesigned the BAM Cultural District Master Plan, design the new branch. Shawmut Design and Construction worked on the renovation to the ground floor of the historic manufacturing building originally built in 1901.
The new 6,500 s/f the Adams Street Library features flexible meeting rooms and programming space with modern technology, in addition to areas for books and resources.
Fronting Brooklyn Bridge Park, the library offers views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and downtown Manhattan from its 15-foot windows, while the interior space includes a bright, whimsical area for children, elevated in the center of the library so younger children can see out of the large windows. Teens have their own area to gather as well, part of a wider BPL initiative in libraries across the borough to provide a separate and safe area for teens to do homework or meet.
Created by Dumbo-based graphic design studio Link By Air, two massive murals are on display at the new library, reflecting the historic supergraphics which are iconic in Dumbo across the old manufacturing plants and warehouses throughout the neighborhood. Behind the check-in desk, a wall-length pixelated mural depicting large-scale plants give the wall texture and color that resonates with the whitewashed timber ceiling and brick. On the exterior of the building, visitors in the neighborhood are drawn to the outside of the building with the bright orange lettering spelling out Library.
