A new addition to the Queens Library system is soon to make its mark on the Long Island City skyline. Hunter’s Point Library, designed by Steven Holl Architects, is a 22,000 square foot, concrete box that will sit at 81 ½ feet tall next to Gantry Plaza State Park. The facade features sculpted cut-outs that filter natural light in to the adult, teen, and children’s reading areas. The library design includes a 60-foot high atrium, an outdoor amphitheater, a roof terrace, café and cyber center. The base of the library sits one foot above the City’s designated 100-year floodplain, meaning the area is subject to a one percent chance of flooding each year. As an elevated structure, the library should be protected from significant damage from hurricanes and tidal surges.

The new 7,000 square-foot Bronx River House will be the base of operations for the restoration and management of the Bronx River Greenway. The new office space will be home to the Bronx River Alliance and feature a 30 seat classroom and a 600-square-foot multi-purpose room. The design also includes a public plaza that can double as an outdoor programming area. One of the building’s many sustainable features is a curved vegetative wall, which will provide shade in the summer and allow sunlight to help heat the building during the winter. Designed by Kiss + Cathcart Architects, the River House will provide exciting new public amenities to the greenway being built along the Bronx River.

This new 110,000 square-foot parking lot is the first major public project in New York City to include 100% recycled asphalt pavement. The parking lot sits on a naturally sloped surface, which causes flooding, next to Union Turnpike and the Van Wyck Expressway. Architecture and urban design firm WXY included many sustainable features in the design such as bioswales, native trees and plantings and electronic charging stations for cars. There will be 300 parking spots available to employees and visitors of Queens Borough Hall.

While undergoing a top-to-bottom renovation, this famous Bedford-Stuyvesant theater has been under a two-year residency at the Brooklyn Music School Playhouse, part of the Brooklyn Academy of Museum (BAM) Cultural District. Next year, performances will return to the 44-year old theater inside Restoration Plaza at 1368 Fulton St. The project included installing new sound and video equipment as well as lighting, rigging, carpet, drapes and seating – much of which hasn’t changed since the early 1970s. This neighborhood mainstay was named after jazz singer Billy Holiday and primarily served the African American and Caribbean-American populations in Brooklyn.