Libraries as Learning Landscapes: SCAPE’s Outdoor Civic Spaces for Community

Across New York City and the United States, libraries remain one of the last free and accessible places for communities. They provide several levels of support—from educational resources and language courses to cooling centers during heatwaves and hubs for food and supply distribution. No longer places to only check out books, they are essential sites of social infrastructure.To more effectively operate as a “third space” and to better connect with the communities they serve, libraries are turning outward, creating outdoor areas for gathering, programs, and study.

SCAPE has been at the forefront of this initiative by designing a series of immersive outdoor reading rooms and plazas that have become integral to the contiguous streetscape, ushering in a new era for New York City infrastructure. Recognizing these spaces as vital social beacons, SCAPE understands that they must be resilient for an evolving future. Their teams have worked with both Brooklyn and Queens Public Library systems to create lush, richly-detailed civic spaces that function as immersive landscapes while connecting the buildings to their urban and ecological contexts.

In celebration of the NYCxDesign Festival, on May 14th, join SCAPE Senior Associate, Daniel Hernandez, for an overview of the firm’s library work plus a walking tour of the Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center with Brooklyn Public Library’s Environmental Justice Coordinator, Acacia Thompson. Starting at 6 PM, attendees will learn how community engagement, learning initiatives, and ecological context informed the landscape with an inside look at the design process. Following the talk, participants will then be invited to explore the three-tiered library branch and experience design details first hand while also learning about the library’s unique environmental education programming.