Midtown Fumes Over Donnell Library's Fate (original) (raw)

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times Donnell Library, at 20 West 53rd Street, closed last year.

A group of library users and residents of Midtown Manhattan are fuming over what they are calling the inept and heartless handling of the Donnell Library, which was known for its rich holdings of movies, music, foreign language materials and children’s books until it closed last year.

The New York Public Library shut the Donnell branch, which opened in October 1955, last August, as part of a deal announced in November 2007 to sell the building to Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. for $59 million. The five-story building, at 20 West 53rd Street, was to be razed to make way for an 11-story hotel, but a new library branch would occupy space on the first floor and basement. The deal fell apart in March, however, with the hotel company backing out, citing the financial and credit crises.

Now, there is neither the library nor the money that was supposed to come from the hotel deal. Outraged library patrons have called on the City Council to compel the New York Public Library, a nonprofit organization that gets much of its financing from the city, to reopen Donnell.

“This is a tragedy being ignored,” RitaSue Siegel, who had been using the library since the 1970s and is an organizer of the campaign to reopen Donnell, said in an interview. “The N.Y.P.L. board must be hammered with tales of their irresponsibility.”

Another Midtown resident, David J. Schneiderman, a married father of two who regularly used Donnell, said in remarks to a meeting of Community Board 5 on April 16: “It is a disgrace to eliminate a public library from a neighborhood and, as a result, deprive our youngsters of the benefits associated with a concerned staff that knows and cares for its young patrons. In this age of impersonal communication, we should not allow a bona fide community library to disappear.”

The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who attended the community board meeting, called the closing of Donnell “a huge blow” and vowed to investigate what could be done, according to several residents who were present. And Councilman Vincent J. Gentile, a Brooklyn Democrat who is chairman of the committee that oversees the city’s libraries, also vowed to look into the matter.

Officials at the New York Public Library have stood their ground, saying the 1955 library was crumbling and in dire need of repairs that the library system could not afford.

“Our goal was and is to create a new, state-of-the-art library on the Donnell site, replacing an aging, out-of-date building,” said Heidi Singer, a spokeswoman for the library system. “We’re now evaluating various alternatives.” She said the library system hoped that Orient-Express Hotels “honors its commitment to the library,” but would not specify whether the library system planned to sue the hotel chain.

Ms. Singer added in a statement: “We understand the disappointment of Donnell users at the closure of their library and continue to keep them informed, through Community Board 5, as developments move forward. In the meantime, all of the materials and services offered at Donnell are or will shortly be available at other Midtown locations.”

Ms. Singer cited a March 31 meeting at which George D. Mihaltses, the library’s vice president for government and community affairs, and Teresa Myrhol, a librarian, sought to assuage community members’ concerns. But Ms. Siegel and others who attended that meeting said the library representatives were noncommittal and would not offer specifics.

Next Wednesday, the New York Public Library plans to formally open a 12,000-square-foot Grand Central branch at 135 East 46th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. Ms. Singer called the new branch “open, inviting and full of light,” with “double-high front windows and beautiful, sustainable bamboo cabinetry,” along with wireless Internet access for laptops and a sizable holding of popular fiction, documentary videos and audio materials.

She also noted that the renowned children’s holdings at Donnell had been moved to the main branch of the library system, now known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, while Donnell’s musical holdings were transferred to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

But Ms. Siegel said the new branch was hardly a substitute for the 88,000-square-foot Donnell. She and other residents plan to picket the opening of the new branch.