The Terrible Word "modernization"

The Terrible Word "modernization"
The Terrible Word "modernization"

Video: The Terrible Word "modernization"

Video: The Terrible Word "modernization"
Video: Alan Macfarlane (Cambridge), Tocqueville on China and America 2024, March
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This is the main library building located at the intersection of 42nd Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan. This monumental Beaux-Arts building by Carrère & Hastings has remained almost unchanged since its opening in 1911. However, over the past century, and especially over the past 20 years, the function of libraries has changed significantly, as have the technical requirements for book depositories. Also, the impact of the crisis cannot be discounted: unlike other major US libraries, the New York Public (NYPL) does not receive congressional assistance like its library, and is not supported by a multi-billion dollar university foundation like Harvard. It exists on the money of the city and philanthropists, so in recent years it was forced to reduce the purchase of new books and even lay off some of its employees.

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Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Вид главного фасада со стороны 5-й авеню. Фото Wikimedia Commons
Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Вид главного фасада со стороны 5-й авеню. Фото Wikimedia Commons
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At the same time, the popularity of its foundations is declining: according to the NYPL management, over the past 15 years, the use of visitors to its collection has decreased by 41%, and in each particular year they request only 6% of the number of printed materials (which is due to the growing number of published books and periodicals). At the same time, in 2011 it was visited by 2.5 million people - a record in the entire history of this institute, especially considering that since 1971 only a scientific library has been located in the building, and the subscription department has moved to the building opposite.

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In 2008, it was announced that the pass would return to the historic building (its current building is extremely dilapidated), and the branch of science, industry and business literature will also enter (its attendance dropped 78%, since most of the materials are now available online). Their buildings will be sold to pay part of the upcoming renovation. To accommodate these "new acquisitions", the least "popular" books (2-3 million out of 5 million stored in the library) were planned to be transported to Princeton, New Jersey and delivered to Manhattan within 24 hours upon request. The rest of the materials were to be located in an existing underground storage facility under Bryant Park, next to the rear façade of the building. Such a reshuffle would reduce the operating costs of this largest public library by $ 7-15 million per year (although the NYPL has a network of 91 branches that will continue to operate). These funds were supposed to be spent on increasing the library's working hours (until 11 pm on days of special influx of visitors), stocking up funds, attracting new employees, buying computers for visitors, expanding educational and exhibition programs.

Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Вестибюль. Фото © Karen Johnson
Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Вестибюль. Фото © Karen Johnson
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But in order to allocate space for all these innovations, it is required to disassemble 7 tiers of steel shelving for books supporting the main reading room located above them, 90 m long. … Their project was developed even before the competition for the library building itself was held in 1897, and all its participants had to fit this huge metal cage into their projects. Dismantling it will not only free up significant space for the public: now it is impossible to ensure fire safety, nor control over temperature and humidity, so its quality as a modern book depository can be questioned.

Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Фото © Karen Johnson
Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Фото © Karen Johnson
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Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Фото © Karen Johnson
Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Фото © Karen Johnson
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Due to the crisis, the project went unnoticed by the public, and then was postponed due to a predictable lack of money, but in 2011 it was re-launched, and then the public rebelled. The main objections were raised by the "link" of the books to Princeton: according to observers, it will not be possible to deliver them to New York by truck through traffic jams within 24 hours after the request. But even a day is too much for a student preparing for the delivery of a diploma or for a scientist from Los Angeles who has come to New York for a few days to visit the library. A letter against such an innovation was signed, in addition to thousands of writers and researchers, Salman Rushdie and Mario Vargas Llosa. The convenience of using a huge fund of valuable materials attracted visitors from all over the world to the New York library; over the century of its existence, essays and poems have been devoted to it: this unique attraction, as it turned out, can be easily lost in the pursuit of modernization.

Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Читальный зал. Фото © Karen Johnson
Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Читальный зал. Фото © Karen Johnson
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The public was also worried about the return to the main lending building, with its free access shelving and typical new library public areas. The current building of the subscription is noisy and crowded, this situation is likely to develop in the new (old) place, which cannot but interfere with the majority of visitors to the scientific library - from a student to a prominent writer.

Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Фото © Karen Johnson
Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Фото © Karen Johnson
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The third problem, best explained by The Wall Street Journal's architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable, was concern over the historic building itself - the listed building. The facades, lobby and exhibition hall are subject to protection in it. For some reason, the reading room is not included in this list, and the shelves, a monument of the engineering art of their time, cannot receive the status of a monument in principle, since they are not an accessible object.

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The book "link" issue was almost entirely resolved by the library's board of trustees, Abby Milstein, who, together with her husband Howard Milstein, donated $ 8 million to expand the underground storage facility near Bryant Park. Now only 1.2 million books will go to Princeton, most of which have already been digitized. But the rest of the objections - the transformation of an important cultural institution into a "cafe with books" and the distortion of its appearance - have not lost their relevance.

Разрез стеллажей Нью-йоркской публичной библиотеки. Обложка журнала Scientific American, 27 мая 1911
Разрез стеллажей Нью-йоркской публичной библиотеки. Обложка журнала Scientific American, 27 мая 1911
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These battles erupted long before the presentation of the preliminary project, which took place only last week (although Norman Foster was commissioned to renovate it back in 2008). Even opponents of the renovation hoped that the British architect would come up with some brilliant solution, like his Reichstag dome in Berlin, that would effectively and effectively unite the old and the new, even if all the questions were not resolved.

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At the presentation, it turned out that the architect had not yet even considered important functional details (for example, a quick way to deliver books from underground storage to readers), but focused on other points.

Norman Foster proposes to create an enfilade of spaces from the 5th Avenue main entrance lobby through the showroom to a new atrium at the rear façade (this will be the first to open into the interior: it used to be blocked by shelving). There, instead of the disappeared shelves, the floors and the reading room above them will be supported by 20-meter columns. The atrium opens onto four levels of the subscription department, designed as balconies. Shelves decorated with cast-iron panels with historical shelves will display books from both the subscription itself and the natural science branch. The total area of this space will be almost 10 thousand m2.

Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Задний фасад и Брайант-парк. Фото с сайта fourseasfoursuns.blogspot.ru
Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека. Задний фасад и Брайант-парк. Фото с сайта fourseasfoursuns.blogspot.ru
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Some of the premises, now converted into offices and technical areas, will be reopened to the public: there will be newly created departments for children's and youth books, an educational center will be located in the basement level, and a new reading room “Writers' Room” will open. As a result, according to the library's management, 66% of the building's space will be available to visitors instead of the current 30%. So far, Foster has chosen stone, wood and bronze to decorate the interior, which is combined with the historical part of the building.

Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека - реконструкция © dbox. Courtesy of Foster + Partners
Нью-йоркская публичная библиотека - реконструкция © dbox. Courtesy of Foster + Partners
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The project calmed few people: not even mentioning the numerous gaps (although the architect has been actively working on it since 2011), it seemed to critics too weak, clearly adjusting to the environment, although the strength of Foster's previous reconstructions was precisely in their ability to conduct a dialogue with the past on an equal footing. It is not yet clear what is the point of starting a grandiose "revolution" for the sake of such a modest (and even dubious) result, which does not bring anything fundamentally new to either the library or the librarianship in general.

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At the same time, one cannot but agree that even as respected as the New York Public, libraries need to meet the demands of the digital age, not to mention fire safety. Therefore, the library was faced with an unattractive but inevitable prospect of modernization. At the same time, it will be able to preserve itself as a unique cultural institution, time will tell, and the nearest one: reconstruction with a budget of $ 300 million will begin in the summer of 2013 and will be completed in 2018.

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