After Big Gift, a New Name for the Library (original) (raw)
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- April 23, 2008
The name will appear five times on the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue: at the base of each of the two center columns leading to the century-old building’s main entrance; on a gold plaque on the marble floor just outside the front door; and in the marble of the pedestals beneath the lamps at the library’s 42nd Street entrance. The letters will range from 1 to 2 ½ inches in height, those cut into stone etched in a new font that gives the patina of age.
The name will not be as big as some others high atop the facade on Fifth Avenue like Astor and Tilden but it will be visible to all who pass by or ascend the steps.
On Tuesday, the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission officially agreed to change the name of the library’s main building to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, and revealed just how that name would be, if not shouted, then quietly yet firmly spoken to the world.
The main building of the library is being renamed in his honor after Mr. Schwarzman, a Wall Street financier, contributed 100milliontotheinstitution,oneofthelargestgiftstoaculturalinstitutioninNewYorkCity.Thegiftisgoingtowarda100 million to the institution, one of the largest gifts to a cultural institution in New York City. The gift is going toward a 100milliontotheinstitution,oneofthelargestgiftstoaculturalinstitutioninNewYorkCity.Thegiftisgoingtowarda1 billion overhaul of the library system.
The commission’s unanimous vote on Tuesday to approve the proposal removed the last hurdle to making the first major changes to the facade of the grand entrance of the building in a century.
While some opponents of the proposal worried that it could set a dangerous precedent, Paul LeClerc, the library’s president, promised the commission on Tuesday that there would never again be another name carved into the building’s facade.
“We will not be back again,” he said.
Mr. Schwarzman was flying back to New York and could not be reached for comment, said a spokesman at his company, the Blackstone Group. His office referred to his previous statement on the gift and the renaming of the building, noting that it was the library that proposed adding his name to the facade in recognition of the gift. Mr. Schwarzman, 61, a library trustee, said he was impressed by the scope of the overhaul project when it was presented to the board last June.
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A landmark library will be renamed for Stephen A. Schwarzman.Credit...Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Mr. Schwarzman will join a roster of magnates who were instrumental in the creation of the library: Samuel J. Tilden, John Jacob Astor and James Lenox.
Their family names which appear only once in foot-tall lettering adorn the attic of the main facade in larger letters than those in which Mr. Schwarzman’s name will appear, a fact that Mr. LeClerc cited in making his case that it was completely in keeping with the tradition of the library to prominently recognize major gifts from private donors and “the intimate tie between philanthropy and The New York Public Library.”
Mr. LeClerc repeatedly used the word “staggering” to describe Mr. Schwarzman’s gift, which was given without any conditions. Whereas the original contribution of the library’s founders brought the library into existence in the 20th century, Mr. LeClerc said, Mr. Schwarzman’s largesse will allow it to thrive in the 21st.
The library is far from the first cultural institution in the city to honor a major donor with the naming of a building. For instance, the new Museum of Modern Art building is named for David and Peggy Rockefeller.
Critics of the renaming of the library building said that they did not oppose honoring Mr. Schwarzman for his donation, but that they found the library’s approach excessive.
“The amount of the inscriptions and their proposed language, design and location take away from the restrained classical, austere grandeur of the Carrere and Hastings landmark and overshadows the original gift of the Astor Library, the Lenox Library and the Tilden Trust,” said Nadezhda Williams, an associate at the Historic Districts Council, at Tuesday’s hearing.
“These organizations and their founders, without whom we would not have this world-famous institution, are mentioned only once on the building’s facades, not five times, as is proposed for this new donation.”
Mr. LeClerc said that the name would appear twice at each entrance simply because they were trying to keep with the building’s existing symmetry.
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The New York Public Library’s main building will be renamed for Mr. Schwarzman. His name will appear on it five times.Credit...Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
Howard Mendes, the chairman of the Landmarks Committee of Community Board 5, where the library is located, said that his major objection was only to the carving of the name at the base of the pillars at the main entrance of the building off Fifth Avenue.
“The number of carvings is excessive,” Mr. Mendes said. A better solution, he said, would be to keep the gold plaque and the inscriptions at the more discreet 42nd Street entrance and do away with Mr. Schwarzman’s name out front.
The commission ultimately found that the proposal would “not overwhelm the monumental size of this building” and was sufficiently modest.
Mr. LeClerc said that the method used to recognize donors on the inside of the building where hundreds of names are listed provided the starting point for considering how the name out front should look.
Then there was a question of scale.
The largest letters on the building spell “The New York Public Library,” and are 18 inches tall. The Astor, Lenox and Tilden names are 12 inches tall.
Mr. Schwarzman’s name is comparatively small, but since it is seen by passers-by almost at eye level, it will have a decidedly different impact.
Library officials expect that his name will be added some time in 2009 and that the larger restoration of the building’s facade will be completed in 2010.
“We would not be one of the great libraries in human history without philanthropy,” Mr. LeClerc said. “And this is a magnificent gift.”
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