The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, designed in collaboration with Beyer Blinder Belle, transforms a historic building on Fifth Avenue Dutch architecture practice Mecanoo and US firm Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners have completed the The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library in New York City, within the 1914 shell and steel frame of the Mid-Manhattan Library on Fifth Avenue which it replaces. The library was and remains the largest circulating branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL). The 16,722 sq m renovated building is topped with an eye-catching angular roof – alongside a roof garden – which Mecanoo principal Francine Houben calls the ‘Wizard Hat’. ‘Libraries are the most important public buildings of all,’ says Houben. ‘A central circulating library must empower the community it serves. Here, the community is all New Yorkers. Super-charged with energy, diversity and hope, America’s greatest city deserves the best that a central circulating library can be. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library is a powerhouse of wisdom, and its street presence brings drama and magic to Manhattan, visibly expressed with its Wizard Hat.’