Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South | also 567 LaGuardia Place | Greenwich Village | built 1973
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1966
City Planning Commission votes 5 to 2 to approve NYU's library plan
On July 20, 1966, the City Planning Commission voted 5 to 2 to back NYU's proposed library for its Washington Square campus. The New York Times called the plan controversial. The commission's decision still needed ratification, and opponents of the project vowed to take their case to the Board of Estimate.
Source: The New York Times
- 1968
Jane Jacobs, Ruth Wittenberg and Verna Small protest the library as too big for its site
In the late 1960s neighborhood activists fought NYU's plan for a tall library on Washington Square South. Ruth Wittenberg, Jane Jacobs and Verna Small argued that the building was too large for the lot and that it would throw a long shadow across Washington Square Park. The protest did not stop construction, and the twelve-story library went up anyway.
“…unsuccessful protest against the construction of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at New York University, which she and other local residents considered too large…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1972
Philip Johnson and Richard Foster design a 12-story library with study rooms facing the park
Philip Johnson and Richard Foster designed the building, which was built by 1972 and has 12 stories and about 425,000 square feet. On the north side, the even-numbered floors have large double-height study rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Washington Square Park. It is the flagship of an eleven-library NYU system.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1973
Bobst Library opens, funded by an $11.5 million gift from drug executive Elmer Bobst
NYU's main library opened on September 12, 1973, and took the name of Elmer Holmes Bobst, who gave $11.5 million toward it. Bobst had made his money in the pharmaceutical industry, was a longtime NYU trustee and was a confidant of President Richard Nixon.
“Opened on September 12, 1973, Bobst Library is named after its benefactor, Elmer Holmes Bobst, who gave US$11.5 million toward its completion.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1973
Critic Paul Goldberger hails the new library's atrium as one of the city's most spectacular spaces
When the library opened in 1973, Paul Goldberger, then the Times's architecture critic, wrote that its atrium ranked among the city's most spectacular architectural experiences. In the 12-story building designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, thin aluminum balusters ring the balconies around a void about 150 feet high, above a floor laid in an optical-illusion pattern.
Source: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com
- 1975
Fales Library's Downtown Collection documents the city's art and writing scene from 1975 onward
On the library's third floor, Fales Library holds the Downtown Collection, which covers New York's art, performance, film and literary life from 1975 to the present. Its archives include the papers of writers such as David Wojnarowicz, Dennis Cooper and Lynne Tillman, and records of Mabou Mines and Creative Time. Late-1970s punk and no wave videos, photos and posters are among its strengths.
“The Downtown Collection documents the downtown New York city art, performance, film, and literary landscape from 1975 to the present.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1981
The library's "Bobcat" catalog gives NYU its mascot
NYU's teams are called the Violets, but since 1981 the school's mascot has been a bobcat. The animal traces back to the abbreviation then used for the computerized catalog of Bobst Library, shortened to Bobcat. NYU's colors are the trademarked hue NYU Violet and white.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives move from Brandeis to the Tamiment Library
In 2001 the Tamiment Library, housed in Bobst, acquired the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, which had been held at Brandeis University. The collection documents American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. It holds papers from over 200 of them, along with oral histories, films, photographs, posters, and part of the microfilmed International Brigades records taken to the Soviet Union.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2004
Student Steven Stanzak, the 'Bobst Boy', goes national after living in the library basement
Steven Stanzak, an NYU student, lived in the basement of Bobst Library from September 2003 to April 2004 because he could not borrow enough to cover housing. His online Q&A grew into a blog, and the Washington Square News prepared a profile. A dean told him he could no longer stay but arranged free university housing; he appeared on Good Morning America on April 29.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2007
The Communist Party USA's archives arrive at the Tamiment Library in more than 2,000 cartons
The Communist Party USA's archives were given to the Tamiment Library, which is housed in Bobst, in March 2007. The donation came in over 2,000 cartons, holding 20,000 books and pamphlets plus thousands of photographs from the Daily Worker's archives.
“In March 2007, the archives of the Communist Party USA were donated to the library.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2012
NYU wraps the atrium balconies in perforated aluminum screens
In 2012 NYU enclosed the atrium's balconies and open staircase with 286 aluminum panels in 39 randomly perforated patterns. The university had put up clear polycarbonate barriers after two students died in falls there in 2003, and a third student died in a fall in 2009. Each 20-foot panel weighs about 150 pounds, light enough for the cantilevered balconies. NYU's Andrew Repoli said the aim was something sympathetic to Philip Johnson's design yet of its own time.
Source: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com
- 2016
Student groups demand that NYU drop Elmer Bobst's name from the library
In 2016 several student organizations sent NYU's Board of Trustees a list of demands. One called for the library to be renamed because of Elmer Holmes Bobst's alleged history of antisemitism.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Elmer Holmes Bobst LibraryWikipedia
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