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GCP has transformed East 41st Street between Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue into an entertaining and illuminating promenade to the majestic New York Public Library Humanities and Social Sciences Library by displaying 96 bronze sidewalk plaques featuring quotations from literature and poetry. Known as “Library Way," this initiative was being undertaken by GCP with the assistance and support of the New York Public Library, the property owners and commercial tenants along 41st Street, library organizations, and the New York City Department of Transportation. Library Way was officially dedicated on May 27, 2004.
When the Library Way project was first initiated by the GCP more a decade ago, 41st Street from Fifth Avenue to the Park Avenue/Pershing Square Viaduct was a shadowy street that was commonly treated as a "backstage" delivery-entrance to properties on nearby 42nd Street. But the recent rehabilitation of existing properties and new development along this thoroughfare, including the completion of NYC's newest glimmering office tower, and the opening of some of the city's swankiest hotels and coolest restaurants, has made 41st Street one of the more exciting and active streets in the Grand Central neighborhood.
With lions "Patience" and "Fortitude" guarding its doors, the New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library presides majestically over the head of the street. Once the former site of a city reservoir, the Humanities and Social Sciences Library is known throughout the world for the extraordinary comprehensiveness of its collections, as well as for its commitment to providing free and equal access to its resources and facilities. It houses some 15 million items, among them priceless medieval manuscripts, ancient Japanese scrolls, contemporary novels and poetry, as well as baseball cards, dime novels, and comic books.
In 1996, GCP, along with the New York Public Library and New Yorker Magazine, convened a distinguished panel of literary experts and librarians to select the quotations from prominent works of literature. These quotes have been brought to life by urban sculptural artist Gregg LeFevre in vivid bronze plaques that have been installed in the sidewalks along 41st Street leading to and from the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. The Library Way bronze plaque initiative was subsequently honored with an “Excellence in Design” award by the New York City Arts Commission in 1998.
In honor of the project, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg enacted Local Law 34 of 2003 on June 3, 2003 that ceremonially designates this two-block stretch of East 41st Street as “Library Way.” The legislation was sponsored by Manhattan council members Christine Quinn and Eva Moskowitz, and Council Speaker A. Gifford Miller and was overwhelmingly supported by Community Board 5.
To view the Library Way plaques, please click here.
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