libraries

2021 was an exciting year for Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center. After opening to the public in fall 2020, the library continues to be honored with multiple awards in across design disciplines. Most recently, Greenpoint Library received the AIA Tri-State Design Awards Silver Medal, the top award in the Regional and Urban Design category.

Below is a full list of each of the awards and their significance:

AIA Tri-State Silver Medal: Silver Medal, Regional and Urban Design (2021)
The Silver Medal is the highest honor given by AIA Tri-State, which recognizes regional excellence in design and impact on the built environment, considering factors such urban design, regional and city planning, and community development.

 

AIA New York State Design Awards: Institutional Merit Award (2021)
The AIA New York State 2021 Design Awards highlight works displaying architectural excellence, by New York licensed and registered architects. Submissions were selected over nine categories, with 24 total projects as recipients.

 

NYCxDesign Awards (Interior Design): Greater Good: Social + Environmental Impact Category (2021)
The NYCxDesign Awards focus on interior design, awarding projects over a variety of major design areas.

 

Architizer A+ Award: Finalist (2021)
The Architizer A+ Award recognizes the work of top architecture firms worldwide, highlighting architecture and spaces that exhibit great design and demonstrate excellence. Read more.

 

Fast Company Innovation by Design Award: Spaces and Places category Finalist (2021)
The Fast Company 2021 Innovation by Design Award honors the most innovative architecture by evaluating factors such as functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural impact, and business impact across 37 categories.

 

ASLA-NY: Merit Award, General Design (2021)
The American Society Of Landscape Architects New York (ASLA-NY) Design Award recognizes projects that demonstrate excellence in landscape architecture. Selections were contingent on design quality, design execution, innovation, community impact, and impact on the profession.

In August, Greenpoint Library & Environmental Education Center was highlighted by Shannon Mattern in a New York Daily News piece titled, “Long Live Public Libraries.” Throughout the article, she discusses the importance and relevance of libraries in offering community support and promoting intellectual growth, which was amplified during the pandemic. She also notes that the physical space of a public library can aid in realizing the larger context of public responsibility by providing access to information. As the Greenpoint Library’s physical location closely ties its function, Shannon emphasizes the library’s programming, noting:
“This library, like many others, works with its community to confront difficult histories, to acknowledge injustices, to celebrate resilience, and to imagine processes of remediation. The work that takes place here can repair the physical and social worlds around it.”

Read the full article here.

The 2020 SARA NY Design Awards recognized the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture with the NY Design Award of Merit. The annual award recognizes design excellence across a variety of projects from around the world in several categories spanning innovation, excellence, honor, and merit. Read more about the awards here.

The Center for Active Design (CfAD) recently published Assembly: Civic Design Guidelines, an inspiring, practical tool that serves as a call to action for designing and maintaining great public spaces for all. We are thrilled Glen Oaks Branch Library, Queens Library is featured as a case study for design that addresses the needs of the surrounding community and serves as an epicenter of cultural exchange. Download a free copy of the full publication from CfAD’s website.

Marble Fairbanks talked the new Greenpoint Library and gave VR tours of the future building at the Green Design Lab event in Grand Army Plaza. The panel was part of Democracy Lab at the Spacebuster, an inflatable pavilion presented by Brooklyn Public Library, Storefront for Art + Architecture, and others. Learn more about the event series here; see the Greenpoint Library in VR here.