----- Forwarded Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 1:59:42 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: Fwd: Norman Foster at NYPL
for Brian, et. al.,
I am very excited about Mr. Foster and friends handling this transition. I
very much appreciate the wonderful Hearst Building, which is the one Foster
building I see almost every working day.
In the 1960s the goal would have been to tear this 1911 NYPL pile down. In
fact, I remember a full page ad in the NY Times showing this very Library
block as a parking lot...
Happily, the goal now is to keep the Central Building, as we are calling it
this week, open and busy...This is a 1911 building. I have seen the
struggles over the years to install and use new technology, you know,
computers, cel phones, copy machines, faxes, wi-fi, with our 6' thick
walls, marble everywhere, and landmark rules preventing perhaps the most
efficient patches. So if the architect lives up to the message that he will
respect the old while installing the new, then there is hope.
When I first heard about the plans to remove the 7 layers of stacks, which
reside directly below the famous 2- block-long reading room on the 3rd
floor, I admit I was dumbfounded by the idea. But I was quickly blown away
by the audactity and creativitiy in the concept- and the willingness of
notably conservative library types to be open to such change.
The book collections will be respected, saved and housed nearby in our
Bryant Park stacks, or in our offsite storage facility for lesser used
materials.,
This is not new, except for the fact that we are keeping our books and not
putting them in the dumpster. Many older books are being scanned by Google,
a boon to researchers. I recently found information about a lawsuit
involving an ancestor, he was convicted, ahem, in a googled book, that in
20 years of research I had never found. These googled books can be housed
offsite, but pulled for readers who need to see them onsite, particularly
for issues relating to their paper, provenance, rarity, etc. -- non-text
issues.
The danger is that we could have opted to worship the building, and worship
the books, and not be open to 21st century needs and requirements for our
readers. We need to respect the building, respect the books [and maps,
natch] and respect the new century and its demanding new technologies- and
get on with it.
Oops, just been corrected. It is not Mr. Foster, as The NY Times noted,
but Lord, Foster of Thames Bank. He was knighted in 1990; granted peerage
in 1993...only the best, no?
Alice C. Hudson
Chief, The Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division
The Humanities and Social Sciences Library
The New York Public Library
5th Avenue & 42nd Street, Room 117
New York, NY 10018-2788
[log in to unmask], 212-930-0589, fax 212-930-0027
Hours: 1-7:30 Tu & Wed, 1-6 Thurs-Sat. Closed Sun, Mon.
http://nypl.org/research/chss/map/map.html
Fwd: Norman Foster at NYPL
Angie Cope
to:
MAPS-L
10/24/2008 08:45 PM
Sent by:
"Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum"
<[log in to unmask]>
Please respond to "[log in to unmask]"
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Brian Bach" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 12:53:20 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Norman Foster at NYPL
A tad bit off subject, but I was wondering what our Alice at NYPL might
think of the big news that the esteemed British architect, Lord Norman
Foster, is about to do some kind of remodel in the grand old NYC
landmark/icon in which she works.
I was sufficiently impressed by wandering around Lord F.'s stunning
HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong, and yes, he is king of airport design,
but what's he going to do with Carrère & Hastings' masterpiece, install
a bunch of metal and glass stuff, or something?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/arts/design/23ouro.html?ref=design>
Alice H., comments...?
Brian
Brian P. Bach
Documents/Maps
Brooks Library
Central Washington University
400 E. University Way
Ellensburg, WA 98926-7548
USA
[log in to unmask]
http://www.amazon.com/Calcuttas-Edifice-Buildings-Great-City/dp/8129104156
|
