Book lovers are losing the New York Public Library’s iconic Rose Main Reading Room for about two weeks. The NYPL is shuttering the room after a large piece of plaster fell from the ceiling Wednesday night.
The library’s Landmark Fifth Avenue building has 52-foot-tall ceilings, richly decorated with wood paneling and painted clouds. Now the library is having the main room and the adjoining Bill Blass Public Catalog Room thoroughly inspected, library spokesperson Ken Weine told the Wall Street Journal. He added that the piece of fallen plaster was roughly a foot wide.
The rest of the Stephen A. Schwarzman building remains open, and additional spaces in the building are being opened to accommodate patrons.
Recently the library scrapped renovation plans for the building that would have gutted the historic book stacks. However, that renovation would not have altered the Rose room. [WSJ] – Christopher Cameron