For the first time in 35 years, a brand-new branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is, well, on the books. It will be the system’s first since the Cortelyou Library opened in 1983 and 60th overall.
The new Brooklyn Public Library branch will be located at 135 Plymouth St. to serve the Dumbo and Vinegar Hill neighborhoods.
WORKac, the New York-based architecture firm behind Issue Project Room, Kew Gardens Library and PS7 in East Harlem, will design it. The firm also redesigned the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The new Brooklyn Public Library branch will feature 6,500 square feet of mixed-use programming space, traditional book-lending services, computers and other tech.
“We are thrilled to begin work on the first new library in our system in almost 40 years,” said Brooklyn Public Library President and CEO Linda E. Johnson. “We look forward to opening a newly designed library for the residents of Dumbo, Vinegar Hill and Farragut. Like every one of our branches, the Dumbo neighborhood library will be a place where the community can come together to read and learn.”
Over the course of the next five years, one-third of the Brooklyn Public Library system will be rebuilt or fully renovated. According to a press release, the forthcoming new branch “was made possible in part through the proceeds of the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Heights library, which itself will bring online nearly 27,000 square feet of public library space as well as 114 affordable housing units in Community Board 2 by 2020.”
When will Dumbo’s Brooklyn Public Library branch open?
While there are not yet any renderings or further information on the forthcoming new branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, system officials said it is slated to open by 2020.
BPL and WORKac will start a community input process for the development of the leased branch at 135 Plymouth St. this fall.
The Brooklyn Public Library is the fifth-largest system in the U.S. and the 2.6 million residents of the borough.
