SEWARD PARK CHILDREN’S LIBRARY

 “Seward Park reflected a philosophy of social reform, that the children had the right to play and they needed opportunities to escape the crowded conditions of the tenements."

Mona Domosh, Invented Cities

The Seward Park branch of The New York Public Library on Manhattan’s Lower East Side can trace its roots back to 1886. The branch, which opened its doors at its current location on 1909, is located at the eastern edge of the park for which it is named. The four-story, red brick Renaissance Revival building was one of 65 New York Public Library branches built with funds from Andrew Carnegie, and it boasts high ceilings and arched windows designed by the firm Babb, Cook & Welch. The changes proposed respond to a need for a dedicated space for school children in the Lower East Side. The project proposes to transform the existing library into a branch library dedicated to children’s play and learning. A new Children’s Play Reading Room that is organized on the lower levels offers a space appropriate for younger readers to engage in reading and playing. Expansion of the ground floor creates a playscape in front of the Seward Park library, recalling the history of the park as the original site of the first public playground in the United States.

Yale School of Architecture. Advanced Studio with Francine Houben & Eugene Han.