Construction is officially underway on a new home for the Rego Park Library, in Queens, New York, a ground-up replacement of the aging 1975 branch at 91-41 63rd Drive. The $39 million project, designed by Weiss/Manfredi for the Queens Public Library (QPL) and managed by the Department of Design and Construction (DDC), will more than double the size of the existing building, a squat 1-story brick building.
“Rego Park has grown and changed significantly since the current branch opened 50 years ago, and we are thrilled to begin construction on a spectacular new library with double the space, modern amenities and a commanding street presence,” said Queens Public Library President and CEO Dennis M. Walcott.
Renderings show a compact, 3-story building wrapped in jade-colored brick, its surface marked by a cadence of tall vertical windows that sweep around both street-facing elevations. The openings will stretch across double-height reading rooms within in an effort to create long bands of daylight. At ground level, the facade will pull open at the primary entrance, where a recessed section of glazing will reveal an interior stair.
Inside the new 7,500-square-foot building, Weiss/Manfriedi’s design organizes circulation around a broad central stair paired with an elevator, linking the lower-level multipurpose room, the ground-floor adult areas, and the children’s floor above.
A dedicated art installation, part of the city’s Percent for Art program, will be embedded directly into the architecture. Katrin Siggurdardottir’s The Fore is set to span approximately 1,500 square feet across three interior walls. In renderings, the artwork appears as large, leaf-like silhouettes emerging from a field of alternating contoured and standard bricks. The patterning will evoke halftone imaging while referencing plants native to Queens, turning the masonry itself into the medium for the mural’s shifting, pixelated forms.
A low-maintenance green roof will top the structure, while high-efficiency lighting and mechanical systems, on-site stormwater retention, and a highly insulated envelope are planned to bring the building in line with contemporary sustainability standards. The project is targeting LEED Silver.
Rego Park has long been one of QPL’s busiest branches, consistently ranking near the top in circulation, visits, and computer use, a workload that has increasingly strained the building’s limited footprint. For years, staff and local officials have pointed to the branch’s popularity as evidence that the one-story facility could no longer keep pace with demand for program space, technology access, and dedicated areas for children and teens. Though now, the library is closed for demolition and construction, QPL will operate a mobile library on-site and direct patrons to nearby branches.
The new building design also arrives at a moment of heightened scrutiny for civic architecture in Queens. Disability advocates recently won a class-action lawsuit over the Hunters Point Library by Steven Holl Architects, where more than 100 accessibility barriers required extensive remediation. The DDC has since completed those corrections, but the case has sharpened public attention on how new buildings handle circulation, vertical access, and inclusive design. That context is evident in the Rego Park Library’s accessible layout.
The Rego Park project sits within DDC’s long-running Design and Construction Excellence Program, which pre-qualifies design firms to streamline procurement for civic buildings. Through the program, the city has delivered recent branch libraries in Far Rockaway, East Flatbush, Inwood, and The Bronx.
Demolition of the existing Rego Park Library is now underway, with construction of the new building expected to be completed in late 2028.
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