SNFL Second Floor: The Nucleus of the Library

Narrator: Overhead lights illuminate the white floors and four-foot-tall bookshelves of the spacious second floor. Long benches with earth-tone cushions offer a place to rest, and chairs line study tables and computer stations.

At the back of the second floor, the ceiling gives way to a dramatic, 42-foot-high atrium—a signature feature of the renovated building. Bordering one side are five levels of browsable book stacks. Along the other side, each floor offers reading spaces, classrooms, and more.

The atrium ceiling features a mural composed of colorful, abstract shapes—some geometric, some freeform—that interlock to resemble symbols or pieces of a puzzle. Entitled “Instant Paradise,” this work by Hayal Pozanti uses an invented alphabet to trace the history of the written word. The theme echoes Edward Laning’s mural in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Nearby is a key to the symbols. The accompanying text explains that the puzzle-like arrangements represent milestones “from the development of clay tablets and papyrus through to braille and the advent of electronic ink. These milestones demonstrate Pozanti’s vision of writing as a fundamentally democratic act, an ever more inclusive practice that transcends culture, borders, and time while tracking the changing relationship between people and technology.”

Interpretive commentary follows.

Alison Stewart: Here on the second floor take a moment to appreciate the many faces of The New York Public Library. Look in one direction and you see people reading, working, studying, browsing the internet… Look in the other direction and you’ll see the lifeblood of the Library: the stacks… Look up and you start to get an idea of how vast the onsite collection is and just how much SNFL has to offer.

And perhaps most importantly, all of this is in a bright, open space that feels accessible to all. Architect Liz Leber.

Liz Leber: It’s a series of libraries within one library, and through architecture we were able to create different atmospheres and different personalities. When you move up the building to the second, third, and fourth floor where the general collections are, there’s a quieter atmosphere but still more activity going on, a lot of people at computers, a lot of people browsing in the Long Room. And then on top of that stack are two more floors for the business library and the adult learning center, which actually have almost a more professional atmosphere. And then finally at the top where all the public programs happen and this incredible public rooftop, that itself is somewhat of an unprecedented reinvention of what a library should be. So when you stack all these things up like a layer cake, it’s really this journey of lifelong learning.

Alison Stewart: If you stand in front of the stacks and look up, you can see all the way to the ceiling three floors above. And there you will find a stunning piece of artwork.

Liz Leber: We thought it was important to commission local artists and illustrators to contribute to the building when it was completed and to the excitement of the building.

New York Public Library along with the architecture team chose Hayal Pozanti to create a mural on the ceiling of that space. It is Hayal Pozanti’s own interpretation of the history of the written word through 12 milestones that she translated into a series of what she calls glyphs, almost an encrypted language, in these bright-colored cutouts. We thought it was a beautiful place to put a piece of art, because it is of indirect reference to the beautiful murals across the street in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, and we wanted to make a connection between these buildings because they are part of the Midtown Campus.

Alison Stewart: The key to deciphering the artist’s graphic language is on a column at one end of the space and also provides more of the artist’s story.