{"id":46231,"date":"2025-11-20T17:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T17:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/46231\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T17:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T17:16:10","slug":"what-will-bronxs-new-grand-concourse-library-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/46231\/","title":{"rendered":"What Will Bronx\u2019s New Grand Concourse Library Look Like?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n Renderings for the new Grand Concourse Library in the Bronx.
\n Photo: Secchi Smith\n <\/p>\n

The 65-year-old Grand Concourse Library in the Bronx is about to be replaced. First renderings of the new public library show a brick-lattice fa\u00e7ade on the first two floors and a double-height reading space that looks airy and bright. But perhaps the most unusual feature of the library is not what\u2019s inside but what\u2019s on top of the stacks: 113 affordable, rent-stabilized units. The project is part of HPD\u2019s Living Libraries program within the City of Yes for Families<\/a> initiative, which aims to make better use of city-owned lots by combining library renovations with new affordable housing. It joins four others \u2014 the Inwood and Sunset Park libraries, which are done, and the New Utrecht library in Bensonhurst and the Bloomingdale Library in the Upper West Side that are just beginning the redevelopment process. The concept isn\u2019t unique to New York \u2014 there are examples in\u00a0Chicago and Boston \u2014 but it finally seems to be picking up steam here.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo: Secchi Smith\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo: Secchi Smith\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo: Secchi Smith\n <\/p>\n

As a ground-up new construction, the Grand Concourse library will benefit from new technology; it will be the NYPL\u2019s first Passive House\u2013certified library. Plus, there\u2019s good news for fans of the Lorrie Goulet sculpture<\/a> on the fa\u00e7ade of the current library \u2014 it will be preserved and installed above the new entryway. The project will be developed by nonprofit organization Settlement Housing Fund and Kalel Companies, a real-estate firm that specializes in affordable housing. The two architectural firms behind the new design are Bernheimer, which is responsible for the overall building, and Levenbetts, which also designed the new East Flatbush Library<\/a> and the interim<\/a> Brooklyn Heights library and is in the process of redesigning the Red Hook Library, the Borough Park Library, and the Baisley Park Library. Andrew Bernheimer, principal of Bernheimer Architects, said that in response to community requests,<\/a> they also worked to \u201cslim the bulk\u201d of the building. Besides the shading provided by the brick latticework on the fa\u00e7ade, David Leven, principal of Levenbetts, said that they also added solar screening to the fa\u00e7ade to reduce energy usage and focused on bringing natural light into the building.<\/p>\n

As for the housing portion of the building, it will be 100 percent affordable, with at least 15 percent of the apartments reserved for the formerly homeless and the rest distributed through the city\u2019s housing-lottery program. The building will include a teaching kitchen, three outdoor terraces, a gym, laundry, and bike storage.<\/p>\n

Even with more than a hundred new units coming online, it can feel like the project will just scratch the surface of what the city needs. When the new Inwood Library, designed by architect Andrew Berman, opened last year, the 174 affordable units that went into the lottery got 80,000 applications<\/a>. Still, the Grand Concourse project was only announced this year and seems to be moving a little more speedily than its Inwood or Sunset Park counterparts<\/a>. The NYPL says it will secure a temporary library space before it begins construction.<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renderings for the new Grand Concourse Library in the Bronx. Photo: Secchi Smith The 65-year-old Grand Concourse Library…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[433,5462,26303,128,5891,5463,26300,13860,26304,26306,26301,26302,9,24,63,26307,26305,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-46231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-affordable-housing","tag-architecture","tag-bernheimer-architects","tag-bronx","tag-city-of-yes","tag-cityscape","tag-grand-concourse-library","tag-hpd","tag-kalel","tag-levenbetts-architects","tag-libraries","tag-living-libraries","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-rendering-judgment","tag-settlement-housing-fund","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}