What began as a renovation project has turned into a reconstruction that will be one of the first massive wooden public buildings in New York City. The new Canarsie Library, a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library on the borough’s east side that opened in February, is undergoing a $30.9 million project that, when completed in 2027, will include meeting spaces, a recording studio and more in 11,000 square feet, double the size of the previous building.
Designer Studio Joseph and contractor Shawmut Design and Construction originally planned to renovate the library when they were awarded the contract. The site revisions, combined with the changes the project began to prioritize, meant that a teardown and rebuild was necessary, says Jonathan Fiato, Shawmut’s senior director.
Site reviews and prioritized project changes dictated that the team demolish and rebuild the existing building rather than renovate it.Rendering: Studio Joseph
The idea to pursue mass timber construction arose from feedback BPL and its contractors received at community meetings held during a period of several months. “This scheme we chose captures the spirit of what we were hearing,” says Wendy Evans Joseph, founding partner of Studio Joseph, the project’s architects.
Locals wanted space for teenagers, a request BPL hears regularly when updating its offices. “Libraries aren’t so quiet anymore,” says Bodenheimer, and the goal is to provide areas that allow strong extracurricular activities. Residents also asked for a more natural and warm feel, says Evans Joseph. As a result, solid wood became one of the few design considerations and later, the preferred construction technology. While the new BPL branch will have metal cladding on the outside, the wood will be exposed internally,
Residents requested that the library have a more natural and warm feelRendering: Studio Joseph
The project team says $20 million of the price tag for the full rebuild was allocated from New York City capital funding as BPL is in the midst of a construction boom, with more than a third of its 60 libraries recently overhauled and replaced or slated for large-scale changes, according to Fritzi Bodenheimer, the library’s senior press officer. The Canarsie location, built in 1960, needed upgrades that represented some of the approximately $550 million in unmet capital needs across the library system.
Shawmut’s detailed quality assurance plan reduces the possibility of trade partners working on the materials damaging the exposed solid wood.Rendering: Studio Joseph
The construction decision marked the Canarsie Library as the first cross-laminated timber building that Shawmut has designed in New York. However, the company has worked on 10 other massive timber projects across the country. A client-contractor team also visited two ongoing massive wood projects in the region, the student dining hall at Amherst College and the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, to see what construction looks like.
Instead of hanging with brackets, the facade with a glass curtain wall system will be integrated into the cross-laminated timber.Rendering: Studio Joseph
Shawmut’s detailed quality assurance plan is designed to minimize the chance that trade partners working on the materials will avoid damaging what will ultimately be exposed solid wood. Tarps and plastic wrap used to protect other building materials would damage cross-laminated timber because they are too waterproof, for example. Instead, Shawmut had to plan plywood barricades and other more breathable interventions.
Due to similar quality issues, fixtures and other library equipment installed had to be planned well in advance and required intensive planning in 3D models. “If you move a light fixture on a sheet metal roof, you move the hole,” says Fiato. “If you move it on a CLT roof, your patch won’t look very good.”
The project includes meeting spaces, a recording studio and more in 11,000 square feet, or double the space of the previous building on the lot.Rendering: Studio Joseph
The library will also feature a glass curtain wall. Instead of being hung with corbels, the facade will be integrated into the cross-laminated timber. Installation is complicated, even by the standards of massive wood construction, Fiato says. The glass will fit snugly for structural integrity and energy code compliance, so Shawmut started with computer mock-ups before scaling to 16-foot-by-13-foot mock-ups of the curtain wall on Long Island. The components are being manufactured now and should arrive on site later this year and next.
Other design elements of the finished building use wood or aim to extend the warm, accessible feel to new surfaces, Evans Joseph says. TECTUM wood fiber panels will be used as an acoustic material, while the terrazzo-style rubber floor is intended to be friendly and welcoming.
As one of the first solid wood public buildings in the city, Fiato knows that the Department of Buildings and the Fire Department are curious to track its performance. Currently, height limits with cross-laminated timber are set at 85 feet in New York City, so Fiato is excited to see how building codes may change as more solid wood appears. And soon, Canarsie will be one of two wood-based libraries the city has to evaluate: Coincidentally, the New Lots branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is it is also being rebuilt with solid wood.
