After Criticism, Public Library Offers Peek at Renovation Plans; New York Times, 12/19/12

Robin Pogrebin, New York Times; After Criticism, Public Library Offers Peek at Renovation Plans: "In the 10 months since the New York Public Library announced plans for a $300 million renovation of its Fifth Avenue flagship building, scholars and writers have accused the library of abandoning its commitment to research and questioned how the circulating library across the street could be shoehorned into a treasured landmark. But something crucial has been missing from this debate: what the transformed library will actually look like. On Wednesday, that will become clear when the library unveils the design by the British architect Norman Foster...The renovation will leave the main reading room on the third floor untouched. Nevertheless, Mr. Marx appears prepared for those likely to construe any change to the Fifth Avenue building, with its lion sentries, as sacrilege. “Anytime you engage in a renovation of a building as beloved as this one,” Mr. Marx said, “there is going to be controversy.”"