The New Queens Library Has No Clothes

Max Touhey

To be told, as women so often are, that what you’re seeing and what you’re experiencing is not actually what you are seeing and experiencing is the calling card of an abusive patriarchal system. (Or as the case may be, to be seen, heard, and then ignored.) One reason, among many, that the #MeToo movement was so cathartic to witness was to see women believed. Finally, we saw women sharing their truth, in effect shouting, “THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!” and for once the world didn’t ignore them or try to convince them that what they felt and experienced wasn’t real. For once, the world acknowledged this truth, and their pain. You’re not imagining it. You are right. The Emperor is naked. Admittedly, the comparison is a little clunky, but the idea being that most of the time, the truth does not exist in a vacuum. But having the truth publicly acknowledged and validated is where women, and less powerful minority groups, are usually left wanting.

It is in this spirit that I would like to add my voice to an already growing rally cry, while those in power try to tell us that what we’re seeing and experiencing is not real. To Steven Holl Architects, including lead architect Steven Holl, Chris McVoy and Olaf Schmidt, designers and creators of the new $41.5 million new Hunter’s Point Library in Long Island City and also for the New York Times Architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, who claims this library is a “masterpiece” I would like to say, “THE NEW QUEENS LIBRARY HAS NO CLOTHES!”

Three fiction sections of the library are only accessible by stairs. Photo by Michelle Young.There is no doubt, the new library is visually stunning. But to create a building of this magnitude in the 21st century and to make so much of it inaccessible to the public it is serving is no way, shape or form a masterpiece. Mr. Holl and associates, quit trying to tell me that what the public is experiencing and seeing with their own eyes and bodies is a farce. Quit trying to convince yourselves and others that this is an unmitigated success. It is not. If a library fails at the most basic level–giving equal access to books and information–it doesn’t matter how warm the bamboo is or how beautiful and stunning the views, and it is certainly not “among the finest and most uplifting public buildings New York has produced so far this century.” Perhaps you haven’t been paying attention, but in 2019 we’re all too familiar with the pathology of powerful, white men who constantly try to inflict their interpretations of the world upon us, trying to convince us that our emotions and experiences aren’t accurate or legitimate, or that we’re simply not seeing them from the right perspective, their perspective.

Sharon Otterman’s New York Times piece highlights some of the many accessibility issues of the new library: “…Several of the terraces at the Hunters Point Library are inaccessible to people who cannot climb to them. A staircase and bleacher seating in the children’s section, judged too risky for small children, has been closed off. And the five-story, vertically designed building only has one elevator, creating bottlenecks at times… The placement of the adult fiction section on three terrace like levels between the library’s first and second floors was the first issue patrons noticed. A few complained that they couldn’t access the fiction books, because those levels were only accessible by stairs, Gothamist reported. Queens Library officials responded that librarians could simply retrieve those books for disabled patrons, a solution in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and noted that the first of the four terraces did have elevator access.”

But that’s not all, let’s talk about that one elevator. Otterman says, “But the decision to build only a single elevator is also causing grumbles. The congestion is compounded by the placement of the main stroller parking area on a second floor landing, which is insufficient for the dozens of strollers sometimes seeking a spot. “It’s crazy right now,” said Nikki Rheaume, one of three children’s librarians, as she tried to navigate a crush of strollers around the second floor elevator last Wednesday, when dozens of strollers descended on the building. “It’s chaos.”” If it’s chaos to navigate a congested hallway leading to the only elevator for an able-bodied individual, then how do you think it fares for someone in a wheelchair? Or someone who uses a walker, cructhes or even a cane?

Otterman’s article goes on to say. “Chris McVoy, a senior partner at Steven Holl Architects, the firm that designed the building, said that too much emphasis was being placed on the inaccessibility of the terraces, which he called a “small wrinkle in an incredibly successful project.” Concepts of accessibility, he added, have changed in the years since the building was designed in 2010.

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times“To be honest, we hadn’t thought, ‘O.K. we have to provide an exactly equivalent browsing experience,’” he said. “This will be a new standard for libraries, and that’s great. But that doesn’t mean it’s a flaw in the design. It’s an evolution.””Telling people who are wheelchair users, the elderly, or even a typical adult with a baby in a stroller who doesn’t want to carry said baby up the stairs because not only is that dangerous but it also might wake up the sleeping baby for shit’s sake, that a librarian can simply fetch the book they want is a maddening and ignorant response, mostly because you know, that we know that is not an actual solution. Not only does it completely ignore the fact that browsing bookshelves is in itself a way people find the books they want to read, but why would you create a building that increases the amount of work and creates more problems for the people that work in the building? Oh and quick question for ya Chris, what about disabled librarians? How are they supposed to help grab books if they can’t access them either?

Not only is this building a failure of 21st century architecture, it is discrimination pure and simple. According to Gothamist, “The oversight is especially glaring given the fact that accessibility has long been a focus of library administrators. In 2005, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions developed an accessibility checklist. The section involving access to materials begins, “All parts of the library should be accessible.” U.S. libraries, in particular, have historically pursued a policy of inclusion for the disabled.”

Your “small wrinkle” that you didn’t really think about is discrimination. Not capitol D discrimination as in you hate all disabled people and don’t want them to access the library. But in the words of Taylor Swift, it appears that you forgot disabled people existed. “It isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just indifference.” But when you’re the architect you can’t be indifferent to the disability community. It is your JOB to remember, plan, include, create and make space for ALL bodies in ALL the spaces. Most especially in a public library.

Mr. McVoy, and the rest of Stephen Holl Architects, it’s not an evolution when you go backwards. It is most definitely a “flaw in the design.” Quit trying to convince the world that this building is anything but stark naked. You failed. Embrace it, admit it and own it. Because unlike sexual assault, you have the power to correct this mistake.

For the rest of us, myself included, I would like to urge you to write to a local business that is currently not accessible and ask them to make their space accessible. How do you know if it’s inaccessible? If there is one or more stairs and no ramp or elevator to enter or access a space, it is inaccessible. For those of you who would like a template, here is something I wrote that you can feel free to use. This is a very basic framework, so please feel free to edit as you see fit.  XO, Miggy