Join Open House New York for a tour of the new Adams Street Library, Brooklyn Public Library’s newest branch built since 1983. Hear from the branch’s librarian and an architect from WORKac about how they transformed this former factory building into a 21st century library with meeting rooms, facilities, and programming areas for children, teens and adults, and incorporated community feedback into the design.

Bringing over 6,500 square feet of newly created public space to northwest Brooklyn’s park-lined East River waterfront, Adams Street Library is the 60th branch for the Brooklyn Public Library, the sixth-largest public library system in the United States. The $7.2 million project is the first branch to serve DUMBO and the neighboring Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Farragut Houses communities.

Work Architecture Company (WORKac) led the design of the new library, which was informed by a series of public engagement sessions and workshops held with community residents and stakeholders. The library dramatically transformed the ground floor of a historic former factory building beneath the Manhattan Bridge and located just steps away from John Street Park, the northernmost section of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

About Radical Knowledge: Libraries as Community Catalysts
Radical Knowledge: Libraries as Community Catalysts is a year-round program examining how libraries serve as both vibrant learning institutions and centers for their communities, providing physical and virtual spaces to enrich civic life.

This series is being developed with learning institutions, community activists, and leaders across New York City’s diverse communities. Virtual, experiential, and participatory experiences for Radical Knowledge include conversations, workshops, site visits, self-guided tours, and a scavenger hunt. These activities are being designed to reach OHNY’s core audience of city explorers while also engaging underrepresented communities that are often not included in the power structures of New York City. Information about series events will be released in Spring 2021.

Radical Knowledge is the sixth installment of OHNY’s Urban Systems infrastructure series. We are grateful to our program partners: The New York Public Library, Queens Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and the Metropolitan New York Library Council.

Tours will be hosted in-person at the Adams Street Library branch.

Tour participants will be required to wear a mask and provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Brooklyn Public Library also requires visitors to complete health screening forms.