Former United States Poet Laureate and founder of Poets House once wrote, “"I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through it and see the world". The LEED Gold home for Poets House, a 50,000 volume library and learning center in Battery Park City, speaks to its founder for its physical transparency beckons all people and voices of poetry to come inside. Such spatial elements as the double height glass entry incorporating an oval glass exhibition space, the transparent children’s library and the glass wall in the auditorium that opens to the adjacent park serve as a beacon to invite the community to enter. All spaces, including a reading library, digital library, children’s library, entry space, museum quality art exhibition space, indoor/outdoor auditorium for 100 people, conference room, pantry and administrative spaces are constantly activated. They are designed to be inherently multifunctional, ultimately making sustainable use of valuable real estate and creating a 24/7 animated environment. Fueled by a forward-thinking design, this 11,000 square foot house of poetry overlooking both the Hudson River and Teardrop Park South is now a hub for artistic inventiveness in downtown New York City.The design not only enlarges the scale at which this non-profit can operate, but accomplishes this while simultaneously saving both energy and the environment. Built with sustainable materials found within 500 miles of the site, such as renewable beech wood flooring, countertops created from metal scraps and insulation composed of recycled blue jeans, the design of this project consistently reduces our carbon footprint. The energy savings will also continue for the design incorporates ongoing high performance systems that will recycle rainwater, monitor indoor environmental air quality and capture filtered daylight as a source of lighting for the entire library reading room. These real world building efficiencies reinforce the openness of the design, affirming Poets House’s sustainability as a cutting-edge place for poetry in the community and the world.

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Poets House Library + Learning Center

10, River Terrace, Manhattan, New York, NY, United States

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Poets House Library + Learning Center

10, River Terrace, Manhattan, New York, NY, United States

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