WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 5, 2021 17
Design of new Rego Park library unveiled
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Queens Public Library revealed its
plans for the new, state-of-the-art
Rego Park branch at 91-41 63rd
Dr., which will replace the current
one-story facility that opened nearly
a half century ago.
The new 18,000-square-foot, twostory
library, with estimated design
and construction costs budgeted at
$33.2 million, will more than double
the size of the original library.
“The Department of Design and
Construction’s outstanding design
refl ects the progress we have made
towards providing this growing community
a much larger, modern library
with spaces that will uplift and inspire
our customers as they access a world of
free information, resources, services
and opportunity,” QPL President and
CEO Dennis M. Walcott said. “I want to
extend my deepest thanks to Council
member Karen Koslowitz for her
decades-long advocacy and fi nancial
support for the new library.”
The Rego Park branch is among the
busiest in the borough serving nearly
200,000 people a year during normal
circumstances and lending about
190,000 items a year. QPL closed the
branch in March 2020 to help stop the
spread of COVID-19 and reopened a
year ago for to-go service.
Since then, Rego Park has been
among the top 10 QPL branches for
check-outs, number of visitors and
computer sessions.
“Rego Park desperately needs an
enlarged library. This was also the
case over 20 years ago when I was able
to get an approval for a new library,”
Koslowitz said. “Over the years, the
project was unable to get underway
because the fi nancial goalposts kept
changing and additional funding had
to be secured. Today, I can say with confi
dence, thanks to the support of four
past and present borough presidents,
four past and present council speakers
and Mayor de Blasio, this library project
is fi nally on its way to completion.”
The project, which is being managed
by the city Department of Design and
Construction, is anticipated to begin
construction in winter 2022 with an
estimated completion date of summer
2025.
“The residents of Rego Park have
been waiting for the construction of a
new library for a very long time, but
thankfully we’re here today to see this
next step forward,” Queens Borough
President Donovan Richards said.
“The designs revealed today show that
the new Rego Park library will be a
fi rst-class facility that will meet and
exceed the educational, cultural and
occupational demands of this vibrant
community. Libraries are community
hubs that are centers for learning, literacy
and culture, and the new Rego
Park library will certainly fulfi ll this
promise.”
Designed by Weiss/Manfredi Architects,
the new library will off er greater
access to free resources, technology
and opportunity to the growing Rego
Park community.
It will incorporate innovative design,
visual comfort including glare control,
balanced acoustic design, natural light,
ergonomics, weather and water tightness,
ease of maintenance and use and
energy effi ciency.
“I am proud to have played a role,
as the former borough president, in
helping bring a new, modern library
to the neighborhood,” Queens District
Attorney Melinda Katz said. “This
larger, upgraded facility will provide a
safe place for children and teens. When
this makeover is complete, it will give
our seniors and everyone else in the
surrounding area greater access to
computers, community activities and,
of course, thousands of entertaining
and educational books to read.”
At double the size of the original
library, the new facility will feature
separate reading rooms for children
and teens, as well as additional space
for computer access and for educational
programs and community activities.
“The students, families and staff of
P.S. 139 are all very excited about the
plans for our new local public library
and we extend a very heartfelt thanks
to all that are making it possible,” said
P.S. 139 Principal Eleuterio Rolon Jr.
said. “Our local library has always
been an important part of the community
and we look forward to many more
years of partnership for the benefi t of
all our students.”
St. John’s University hosts debut of Queens
COVID Remembrance Day exhibit
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
St John’s University will host a new
exhibition honoring the more than
8,600 Queens residents who perished
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Queens COVID Remembrance
Day Project, which held a poignant
event at the Forest Park Bandshell in
May, will move indoors to the Dr. M.T.
Geoff rey Yeh Art Gallery on the university’s
Jamaica campus, located at
8000 Utopia Pkwy., beginning Aug. 8.
“The Queens COVID Remembrance
Day Project represents a communitybased
memorial for loved ones lost
over the pandemic,” SJU M.T. Geoffrey
Yeh Art Gallery Director Dr.
Owen Duff y, Ph.D. said. “It also is a
powerful way to breathe life into
those individual stories and serves as
a visualization of the loss the borough
has experienced. I am in awe of the
work the QCRD committee has done
to make sure the memory of so many
Queens residents — our neighbors,
friends and family — lives on.”
Sixteen-year-old artist Hannah
Ernst created “Faces of COVID Victims”
aft er the loss of her grandfather to the
virus. Her work has become an iconic
symbol in the COVID-loss community,
characterized by a striking silhouette
in front of a yellow heart.
She has completed more than 1,600
of the portraits since last August and
270 of the pieces honoring Queens
residents will be on display at St. John’s
following an opening reception on
Sunday, Aug. 8, at 2 p.m. with remarks
from Congresswoman Grace Meng.
“So many families in Queens continue
to be devastated by the loss of
loved ones due to COVID-19, and my
heart still aches for them, and the pain
they have gone through,” Meng said.
“The Queens COVID Remembrance Day
Project is a fi tting way to honor them
and commemorate the memories of
those from our borough who passed
away from this terrible virus. They
and their families must not be forgotten,
and this project will help ensure
that they are remembered.”
During the May 1 event in Forest
Park, the portraits, each representing
an individual’s life story with details
unique to each of the lost: A favorite
baseball cap, glasses or a carefully
shaded salt-and-pepper beard.
The adorned the empty benches of
the Forest Park Bandshell as a visual
representation of the tremendous loss
endured by the Queens community.
“As what was once the ‘epicenter of
the epicenter’ of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Queens has suff ered a tremendous
amount of pain and agony due to the
loss of so many of our family members,
friends and co-workers,” Queens
Borough President Donovan Richards
said. “This suff ering has been
born chiefl y by the family members
of those whom we have lost. This art
exhibition sponsored by the Queens
COVID Remembrance Committee will
hopefully alleviate some of that suffering
by allowing us to remember all
the wonderful qualities of these loved
ones who were taken from us far too
soon because of this terrible disease.
May these beautiful and special
people never be forgotten.”
The exhibit at St. John’s will be open
to Queens families and the general
public from Aug. 8 through Aug. 12
to continue to honor and celebrate the
memory of all those lost to COVID-19.
For more information, visit the Yeh
Art Gallery at www.sjuartgallery.org.
Queens Public Library presented its plans for the new Rego Park branch
that will replace the old library of 63rd Drive. Photo courtesy of QPL
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