New York Public Library Is Facing A Second Court fight over its $350 million renovation plan, Law360 reported.
Authors, historians and residents banded together earlier this week to try to stop seven stories of stacks at the Central Library from being demolished. They claimed in documents, filed in state court, that the library’s trustees, who are named as defendants, are pushing to begin the demolition process despite calling the plans preliminary.
On July 3, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Levering Lewis and other academics also filed a lawsuit to halt the project. Both of the lawsuits seek an injunction on all demolition work until the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation grants permission. They also want more than 3 million recently removed books returned to the stacks.
In a statement, the New York Public Library has said the plan to turn the seven floors into a library designed by British architect Norman Foster will “improve service for scholars, preserve the library’s collections for future generations and provide a state of the art circulating and business library,” Law 360 said. [Law360] – Mark Maurer