NYU LANGONE MEDICAL SCIENCE BUILDING LIBRARY

Practice: Ennead Architects

Type: Science / Healthcare

Location: New York, NY

Status: Completed, 2015

After Hurricane Sandy flooded the lower levels of NYU's Langone Medical Center, Ennead was tasked with relocating infrastructure to higher floors and renovating the lower levels to create new public spaces for the campus. One of these projects included a new Student Library, located on the ground & first floor of the existing Medical Science Building (MSB).

The design is composed of a series of three main spaces for the students, with the main campus circulation piercing through them. These library spaces transition from a more public, double-height Commons Area to Computer Workstations across the corridor, and then to a quieter Reading Room, adjacent to the courtyard. This parti allows as much natural light as possible to filter in from both sides, while still dividing the space for different programmatic needs.

An armature of cabinets also works to organize the spaces, with a bookshelf in the Reading Room, a rare books display cabinet at the workstations, and a cabinet displaying the staff in the Commons.