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The Hunters Point Library case highlights the ADA's failures to prevent inequality by design

2023-07-24T11:35:00-04:00

More than 30 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law, mandating reasonable accommodations and accessibility features for people with disabilities. Yet to this day, ADA noncompliant sidewalks, crosswalks, and public transportation stops permeate U.S. cities from coast to coast.

The plaintiff in the Hunters Point Library suit against Steven Holl — disability advocate Tanya Jackson — is another high-profile case highlighting the effects of racial health inequality in design and the failures of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for Black disabled citizens, 37% of whom are experiencing poverty.

Some critics have begun apologizing for hyping certain flawed aspects of its design. Recently, the LA Times’ Carolina Miranda diagnosed it as “a structure in which architectural gymnastics have elbowed out basic function” after her own timely house call.

New York City sues Steven Holl Architects over inaccessible Hunters Point Library design

2023-05-19T19:04:00-04:00

New York City is suing the architects behind the Hunters Point Library for tens of millions of dollars over portions of the structure not being accessible to people with handicaps, in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. [...] The city’s lawsuit was filed May 17 in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. The defendants are Steven Holl Architect, PC, aka Steven Holl Architects, and the individuals Steven Holl and Christopher McVoy.

The original lawsuit was brought to Federal court in November 2019 by a local disability advocate named Tanya Jackson. The project debuted just two months prior and drew the immediate ire of critics who were quick to point out the flaws in its $41.5 million non-universal design. Steven Holl Architects senior partner McVoy has defended the project as "incredibly successful" since that time and now faces a total of $10 million in potential damages alongside Holl. Another $20 million could be assessed against the firm depending on the lawsuit’s outcome.

Previously on Archinect: Class action lawsuit filed in Hunters Point Library accessibility dispute

According to the complaint: "As designed and built, the Library failed in multiple ways to comply with the design requirements set forth in the requirements contract and Task Order 1. The areas of noncompliance included several primary design elements of the building, as well as ADA standards for bathroom layout, door clearances, and the li...

Class action lawsuit filed in Hunters Point Library accessibility dispute

2019-11-26T13:29:00-05:00

New York City-based legal group Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) has filed a class action lawsuit against a collection of public agencies representing the borough of Queens, New York "challenging the inaccessibility" of the new Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Library, according to a press statement.

A press release announcing the suit reads: "Under longstanding disability rights laws, newly constructed buildings must be made fully accessible to people with disabilities. Yet Hunters Point Library, which is an entirely new $41.5 million building constructed after years of in-depth planning, shockingly excludes persons with mobility disabilities from full and equal access to its services through reliance on stairs and other inaccessible features."

The statement argues that a series of "barriers" to accessibility exist at the library, including:

Three levels within the building are "completely inaccessible to persons with mobility disabilities"
The children’s section inc...

Accessibility lapses at Hunters Point library continue to draw ire online and in person

2019-11-06T13:17:00-05:00

In the weeks following the much-anticipated opening of the Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Library in Queens, New York City, much of the public discourse regarding the structure has focused on a collection of accessibility and design oversights embodied by the library's design.

Photo © Steven Holl Architects.

A recent article in The New York Times highlights several of these issues, which include the location of the library's adult fiction collections along a series of inaccessible terraced levels as well a relative lack of elevators in the facilities. According to the article, the complex, which was in the works for nearly two decades, is served by a singular lift, a condition that has made the building difficult to navigate, especially for patrons with disabilities and parents who have children. The arrangement has left many on social media with a sour taste, as suggested fixes, including having librarians access collections by hand for patrons, have been interpreted...

Lovely Hunters Point Library is actually lacking in terms of universal design

2019-10-04T07:00:00-04:00

“I think it looks really beautiful," said Frank Wu, the president of Court Square Civic Association, a group in Long Island City that tries to encourage smart development. [...] “There are a ton of stairs but only a single elevator,” he said, adding that accessibility has long been an issue in Long Island City, which has seen the number of young families with strollers balloon in recent years.

A much-lauded new library in New York City's Long Island City district designed by Steven Holl Architects might have serious shortcomings when it comes to accessibility and universal design.

The library's fiction collections are organized along a set of tiered levels that can only be accessed via staircase. Photo © Steven Holl Architects.

As patrons have flocked to the library, it has been discovered that certain areas are less accessible than others, including the library's fiction aisles, which are set along multiple tiered levels that are only accessible via stairs.

Joe Bachner, a resident who visited the library, told Gothamist, "If you can’t walk, you can’t go through that area."

In order to overcome this situation, Gothamist reports, librarians are available to go up and select books for library patrons, as necessary.

Steven Holl Architects' Hunters Point Library is now open to the public

2019-09-25T12:00:00-04:00

Opening day finally arrived for the Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Library, which took some 10 tumultuous years of obstacles and ultimately cost over $40 million to realize. Built on a 32,000-square-foot site facing the East River in Long Island City, Hunters Point is a sculptural, standalone building and public park.

“It is an honor to imagine and realize this community library, a free open public building where people can interact across generations,” Steven Holl said in a statement. “We hope it is a gift to this great city and its future children.”

A 22,000-square-foot, jigsaw-like concrete structure painted in aluminum that gives it a “subtle sparkle,” the library reveals a warm bamboo interior that creates an inviting social and reading space. Large windows on all sides of the building allow ample natural light and provide views of the river. Visitors can move up and along a serie...

A decade in the making, Steven Holl's Queens Library prepares for its grand opening

2019-09-19T15:48:00-04:00

The Hunters Point Community Library is one of the finest public buildings New York has produced this century. But it cost more than $40 million, took a decade and almost died.

NYT architecture critic Michael Kimmelman is full of praise for the Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Community Library in Queens which will finally be opening to the public next week Tuesday, September 24th.

Impression of the under-construction library building in November 2017. Photo: Jim Henderson/Wikimedia Commons

"Compact, at 22,000 square feet and 82 feet high, the library is among the finest and most uplifting public buildings New York has produced so far this century," writes Kimmelman and asks: "Why can’t New York build more things like this, faster and cheaper?"

Construction of Steven Holl-designed Queens Library is underway

2015-05-22T16:20:00-04:00

Construction of the forthcoming Queens Library has begun at Center Boulevard and 48th Avenue in Hunters Point of NYC's Long Island City. Steven Holl Architects won the commission back in 2010 to design the new $30.6 million public library. Surrounded by recently built skyscraper condominiums and nearby attractions like the Gantry waterfront and Louis Kahn's Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, the Queens Library is set up to become the latest landmark for the changing neighborhood.

The library's new design was developed in effort to provide more communal space for local residents and create new connections to surrounding areas in the neighborhood. The library is encased within an exposed concrete square volume coated in aluminum for a "subtle sparkle". Users would move up and along a series of bookshelf-flanked stairs and will encounter the separate children's, teen, and adult areas of the building's fluid program. Glazed cuts in the facade also further open up the building and give views o...