MAYOR GIULIANI TOURS CONSTRUCTION SITE OF NEW $32 MILLION FLUSHING BRANCH PUBLIC LIBRARY IN QUEENS
Busiest Library In Queens System Will Feature Latest Technology, 350,000 Volumes And Spaces For Community Events
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today took a hard-hat tour of the new, state-of-the-art Flushing Library, a facility that will be one of the largest and most active branch libraries in the United States. The new library replaces the previous, smaller Flushing branch, and includes a 225 seat auditorium, meeting rooms for community events, and classroom space for computer instruction, language classes, and after- school tutoring. The City’s Department of Design and Construction, an agency created by the Mayor in 1995 to manage the City’s capital projects, was responsible for overseeing its construction.
Joining the Mayor were Queens Borough President Claire Shulman and Department of Design and Construction (DDC) Commissioner Louis M. Tormenta.
When the new Flushing Library opens in the Spring of 1998, it will provide approximately one million yearly visitors with a 1.5 million book circulation, over 900 language classes and performances free of charge each year and will be the largest children’s library facility in Queens,” Mayor Giuliani said. Children will have a state-of-the-art facility to study, do their homework and learn about the world around them. I am proud of the job the DDC has done and the community now has a jewel of library as a resource.
The new building on the corner of Main Street and Kissena Boulevard is the fourth Flushing Branch Library to occupy the triangular site since the late 1800s. The superior, three story, 77,000 square foot building, designed by Polshek and Partners, replaces the previous, smaller Flushing branch, which was built in 1956 and stood at only 18,000 square feet. At its peak, the old building accommodated 500,000 visitors a year, housed 200,000 volumes and circulated 750,000 items a year.
Construction of the borough’s busiest library required 28 million pounds of concrete, 1 million pounds of re-bar and steel, 30,000 linear feet of piping and more than 450,000 linear feet of electrical wiring. Additional fiber optic cable to support computer data transmission will be installed before the library opens in the Spring.
"This state-of-the-art facility will soon be part of the busiest library system in the United States, and perhaps the world," said Queens Borough President Claire Shulman. "The new library with its Asian Center will be the resource that thousands of people living in the surrounding community can utilize."
DDC Commissioner Louis M. Tormenta described the facility’s design, "This new library will meet the needs of the Flushing Community into the new millennium. Library users will be able to take advantage of the latest technology because the new building will be completely and flexibly ‘wired’ to support growing computer use. Each table and reading carrel has a power source and data connection so that visitors can bring their own laptops and download files off the Internet. And an under-floor duct system to carry electric and fiber optic cables will accommodate relocation and expansion of computers and other equipment."
The Department of Design and Construction is responsible for the construction of New York City’s capital projects, such as roadways, water mains, and sewers, public buildings such as human service facilities, courts, libraries, museums and police precincts; all of which were formerly done by the Departments of Transportation, Environmental Protection and General Services
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