The New York Public Library's largest circulating branch in midtown Manhattan is receiving $55 million to fund a long-awaited renovation thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Niarchos, who died in 1996, was a Greek shipping billionaire with an extensive art collection. Forbes estimated his net worth at $3.5 billion the year he passed away.
Announced Sept. 13, the gift is the second largest that the New York Public Library has received following Blackstone Group billionaire Stephen Schwarzman's $100 million gift to the flagship library on Fifth Avenue in 2008.
The donation will go toward funding a $200 million renovation of the Mid-Manhattan library, which is located across the street from the main Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. (The rest of the renovation's funding will come from New York City capital funds.)
The library, which typically has about 1.7 million visitors a year, first opened in the 1970s and was originally designed as a department store. It closed in August to begin construction and is expected to reopen in 2020, renamed The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. When the project is complete it's supposed to have capacity for about 400,000 books, the largest area for circulating material in the New York library system, and will also feature a rooftop terrace open to the public.
"Public libraries are paradigmatic public institutions offering communities an array of critical services that extend far beyond the lending of books," said Andreas Dracopoulos, co-president of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, in a press release. "The varied roles of public libraries place them, more than ever before, at the heart of our civic societies, at a time when many had been predicting their demise."
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation was founded in 1996. It has committed over $2.4 billion to causes including education, arts and sports around the world.
Philip Niarchos, the oldest son of Stavros Niarchos, is on the FORBES World's Billionaires list with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion. He inherited the bulk of his father's art collection, which is said to be the largest private collection of works by Vincent Van Gogh.
Source: forbes.com