Fundamental to a public library is the ideal of free access to information, site, and programs. This library’s site, in a flood zone and under the High Line, pushes this ideal further: the library becomes accessible and open to the free and interwoven flow of knowledge, people, water, and sightlines. We thus consider the library as a performative piece of landscape, infrastructure, and building.

 

The local context freely flows into, out of, around, and on top of the library. The edges between the High Line and the library’s roof are blurred, as are the edges between the street, the library’s outdoor space, and the interior.

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