The Library Book: Design Collaborations in the Public Schools

The Art of the Library

137

The

Book Design Collaborations in the Public Schools Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi

Princeton Architectural Press New York

New Libraries for New York

28

Notes 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

The words of a Brooklyn P.S. 106 student. L!brary Initiative promotional DVD, directed by Jim Samalis and produced by Kaleidoscope for Robin Hood, 2005.

See also Susan La Marca, ed., Rethink: Ideas for Inspiring School Library Design (Victoria, Australia: School Library Association of Victoria, 2007).

Henry Levin et al., “The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education for All of America’s Children,” Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University (January 2007): 6–12.

Cluster teaching arrangements, often necessary in overcrowded schools, place students in the library for a free period to relieve the regular instructor without necessarily engaging the library as an active learning resource.

Architectural historian Esther McCoy, on the Case Study House Program experiment in design.

Esther McCoy, “Arts & Architecture Case Study Houses,” Perspecta 15 (1975).

Quotes from the Editor’s announcement of the Case Study House Program. Arts & Architecture (January 1945).

The period of development for the pilot libraries happened to coincide with this concept’s showcasing on the world stage by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture with the Seattle Public Library, which opened in 2004.

Major characteristics of Carnegie libraries of New York City. Mary B. Dierickx, The Architecture of Literacy: The Carnegie Libraries of New York City (New York: New York City Department of General Services, 1996), 36.

A recent body of literature in the United States illuminates activist practices of architecture and urbanism. See, for example, Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism (New York: Metropolis Books, 2008); Kate Stohr, “100 Years of Humanitarian Design,” in Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crisis, Architecture for Humanity (New York: Metropolis Books, 2006), 33-55; Andrea Oppenheimer Dean and Timothy Hursley, Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and An Architecture of Decency (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002). The Venice Biennale 11th International Architecture Exhibition in 2008, titled “Out There: Architecture Beyond Building,” directed by Aaron Betsky, dealt with “architecture beyond building to address the central issues of our society.”

Artist Lucienne Bloch, from “Murals for Use,” a 1930s essay for a proposed report to Congress to be titled “Art for the Millions” on the value of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. See also Francis V. O’Connor, ed., Art for the Millions: Essays from the 1930s by Artists and Administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project (Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1973).

Geoffrey Norman, “The Development of American Painting,” in Art for the Millions: Essays from the 1930s by Artists and Administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project, edited by Francis V. O’Connor (Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1973), 50–55.

12.

13.

14.

Robin Hood facilitated many different kinds of donations and reduced-cost products and services to the L!brary Initiative. Major children’s book publishers supplemented collections. Scholastic and HarperCollins pledged one million books each, and Random House, Boyds Mill Press, Little, Brown, and World Book donated books or reduced their costs. Sagebrush and Follett provided card cataloguing, retrospective conversion for books in existing collections, and assistance with new title selection based on Department of Education curriculum standards. Custom Computer Services provided hardware and systems integration at reduced cost. Apple donated computers to some of the first participating schools. Robin Hood donor F. J. Sciame managed the construction of several libraries in a unique agreement with the Department of Education and Robin Hood.

Benjamin Moore donated paint to early projects.

The Rangine Corporation (Rakks) provided highquality shelving at reduced cost. All the architects donated fees. Support came from photography agencies like Esto, Paul Warchol, and Kevin Chu/ Jessica Paul, who contributed professional images.

This list of in-kind donors is not comprehensive, but is intended to outline the philanthropic scope of the Initiative.

Hassan Fathy, Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1973), 186.

Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), xii.

New Libraries for New York

29 1100 Architect || PS16 ||| PS46 PS81 PS147 PS201 PS274

PS PS 31 31 PS 18

Alexander Gorlin Architect | PS92 Bennett Lowry Corporation | PS165

PS 16

Dean Wolf Architects || PS151 Deborah Berke Architect | PS46 Della Valle + Bernheimer Design | PS18 PS 94

PS 86 PS 246

PS PS 189 189

PS PS 186X 186X

PS 28

Leroy Street Studio ||| PS31 PS110 Marpillero Pollak Architects || PS1K Richard H. Lewis Architect | PS184 || PS10 PS36 PS93 PS287 ||| PS47 PS69 PS96 PS186X PS196X The Rockwell Group || PS5 PS17 PS106 PS137 PS145 ||| PS135 PS164 PS216 PS323 PS335

PS 92

Rogers Marvel Architects || PS105 ||| PS9Q PS196K PS380

PS PS PS 50 1 196x 196X

PS 46

PS 93

PS 1X

PS PS 48 48

PS PS 154 154X

PS 149

Helfand Myerberg Guggenheimer Architects | PS50 PS PS 96 96

PS 46X PS 32

PS PS 64 64X

PS 192

Gluckman Mayner Architects || PS192 ||| PS48 PS64X PS146 PS154X PS189M

PS PS 47 47

Ronnette Riley Architect | PS149 Tod Williams Billie Tsien Associates | PS101 || PS1X PS28 PS32

PS 36

Tsao & McKown Architects | PS19 || PS46X PS86 PS94 PS246 PS 196k Cohort 3 Weiss/Manfredi Architects | PS42

PS PS 69 69

PS 101

PS 19

Cohort 1

PS 151

Cohort 2

PS 146

PS 151

PS 19 PS PS 201 201

PS PS 9Q 9Q

PS PS 196k 196K PS 110

PS 17 PS PS 380 380

PS 287

PS PS 147 147

PS PS 81 81

PS 145 PS P PS 274 274

PS PS 256 46

PS 106 PS 5

PS PS 335 335

PS 137

PS PS 323 323

PS 10 PS PS 135 135

PS 1K

PS 184

PS 165

PS PS 164 164

PS PS 216 216

Robin Hood's working map

PS 42

PS 105

PS 126 K

Cohort 3

44

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects selected different illustrations for the four libraries in their portfolio.

At P.S. 1X (shown here) and P.S. 28M drawings were printed on window shades.

The Libraries