City Opens New Library in Far Rockaway

Located at the busy intersection of Central and Mott Avenues, the library is the centerpiece of the revitalization of Downtown Far Rockaway. Photo: Matthew Lapiska/DDC

Designed by the international architecture firm Snøhetta, the new library serves as a center of community and a testament to the revitalization of Downtown Far Rockaway.

Queens Public Library President and CEO Dennis M. Walcott, Representative Gregory W. Meeks (NY-05), Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Queens District Attorney and former Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, New York City Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato, New York City Department of Design and Construction Commissioner Thomas Foley, Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo, members of the public, QPL staff and volunteers, and community leaders today celebrated the grand opening of the new Far Rockaway Library.

Located at the busy intersection of Central and Mott Avenues and designed by the renowned architectural firm Snøhetta, the library is as much the centerpiece of the revitalization of Downtown Far Rockaway as it is an inspiring space for learning, discovery, growth, and community connection.

The new structure is the third library building at 1637 Central Avenue, a site deeded to the City for educational purposes by local philanthropist Benjamin Mott. The original Far Rockaway Library opened almost exactly 120 years ago, on August 18, 1904, and was the first library in Queens built with money donated by the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

The building was destroyed by fire in 1962, and replaced six years later with a 9,000-square-foot, single-story building that served the community until its closure in 2018, when it was razed to make room for the new structure.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the branch became a lifeline for many local residents, providing disaster relief and serving as a food and supply distribution hub.

The new, two-story structure is twice the size of the prior building and cost $39 million to design and construct. It features a unique glass façade and central atrium space designed to let natural light penetrate deep into the building while giving customers views of the sky from within the building.

A tall transparent glass pyramidal opening at the corner serves as the library’s main entry. The building’s interior spaces are arranged around the atrium, which serves as a meeting place, a point of orientation, and the focus of the branch’s activities. The façade is comprised of colored glass, with its colors gradually fading into one another, balancing transparency and translucency. The interior railing is made of dichroic glass, creating a kaleidoscopic effect in the atrium.

The 18,000-square-foot building meets LEED Gold standards for environmental efficiency. The glass façade’s glazing reduces heat generated by the sun and lets in ample natural light, reducing the need for artificial lighting. Other energy efficient features include daylighting and occupancy sensors that work with automated building management systems and an underfloor heating distribution system. The structure also has a blue roof that releases storm water from the site at a slow speed.

A teen room and computer area are located on the first floor, along with library offices, a book sorting area and a staff lounge and lockers. There is also a rear yard accessible to the public. The second floor, accessible by an elevator, has separate adult and children reading areas, and a dividable meeting room. Restrooms are available on both floors.

Snøhetta’s design of the new Far Rockaway Library received an Excellence in Design Award from the Public Design Commission under DDC’s Design and Construction Excellence 2.0 program, which pre-selects and pre-qualifies design firms that DDC works with on projects with construction budgets of up to $50 million. The program is designed to decrease the amount of time required for DDC to procure design services, while ensuring the highest levels of quality and professionalism in construction projects managed by the agency.

Snøhetta – which in the past worked on several high-profile projects, including the Alexandria Library in Egypt and the National September 11 Memorial Museum and Pavilion – collaborated with Brooklyn-based contemporary artist José Parlá to co-design the mural wrapping the façade of the library. Called “Style Writing,” the artwork consists of continuous written forms that reflect the vibrancy of daily life in New York City.

Inside the library, as part of the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent for Art Program, Mexican artist Pablo Helguera created the “Feynman Code,” a tribute to the Nobel Prize-winner and theoretical physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988), who grew up in the neighborhood and attended Far Rockaway High School. One of his contributions to physics are the so-called Feynman diagrams, pictorial representations of the mathematical expressions describing the behavior of subatomic particles. For the Far Rockaway Library, Helguera created an alphabet where every letter is replaced by a Feynman diagram, and reproduced two phrases using this coding system: one by the 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson, “the brain is wider than the sky,” and one by Feynman himself: “I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.” The project received an Excellence in Design Award from the Public Design Commission in 2019.

The new library offers 32 public computers, 32 public laptops, and a collection of nearly 30,000 books, periodicals and other materials in several languages, including items in Spanish and Russian, as well as books about the Black experience and Jewish interest materials for children and adults.

The branch, one of the three QPL locations providing seven-day service, will serve the neighborhood with numerous educational and cultural programs for people of all ages, such as hip hop, STEM and job readiness workshops, story times, yoga and computer classes, after-school study hours, as well as various community events.

The project was funded through capital investments from Queens Borough President Richards, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, NYC Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, NYS Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato, the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the NYS Education Department, and the NYC Council Queens Delegation.

During the construction period, a temporary library operated nearby at 1003 Beach 20th Street.

The general contractor was E.W. Howell Co. LLC of Plainview, NY.

Far Rockaway Library Hours:

Monday: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Tuesday: 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Wednesday: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Thursdays: 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Fridays: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Saturdays: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Sundays: 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Phone number:  718-327-2549

About Queens Public Library
Queens Public Library is one of the largest and busiest public library systems in the United States, dedicated to serving the most ethnically and culturally diverse area in the country.  An independent, non-profit organization founded in 1896, Queens Public Library offers free access to a collection of more than 5 million books and other materials in 50 languages, technology and digital resources. Each year, the Library hosts tens of thousands of online and in-person educational, cultural, and civic programs and welcomes millions of visitors through its doors. With a presence in nearly every neighborhood across the borough of Queens, the Library consists of 66 locations, including branch libraries, a Central Library, seven adult learning centers, a technology center located at the Queensbridge Houses, the nation’s largest public housing complex, and a community learning center at another public housing complex, the Ravenswood Houses. It also has five teen centers, two bookmobiles, and two book bicycles.

About the NYC Department of Design and Construction
The Department of Design and Construction is the City’s primary capital construction project manager. In supporting Mayor Adams’ long-term vision of growth, sustainability, resiliency, equity and healthy living, DDC provides communities with new or renovated public buildings such as firehouses, libraries, police precincts, and new or upgraded roads, sewers and water mains in all five boroughs. To manage this $33 billion portfolio, DDC partners with other City agencies, architects and consultants, whose experience bring efficient, innovative and environmentally-conscious design and construction strategies to City projects. For more information, please visit nyc.gov/ddc.