The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) offered a donation of $55 million towards the New York City Public Library, for renovations of its Mid-Manhattan branch.
The donation, which the library announced on Wednesday, is the second largest single gift in its history, after the $100 million the financier Stephen A. Schwarzman gave in 2008.
Anthony W. Marx, the library’s president, said that the gift would help give the city “the great central branch it has never had,” while also providing a timely boost to the library’s broader democratic mission.
“This gift is a culmination of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s long-standing and unwavering commitment to libraries around the globe,” said Marx. “We are so appreciative of the Foundation’s generosity, vision, and support as we transform our largest central branch into the library New Yorkers deserve and have never had. The project—also supported by our partners in New York City government—will allow for more use and a better flow of ideas and learning back and forth across Fifth Avenue.”
The Mid-Manhattan Library renovation is expected to be complete in 2020, when the building will reopen as The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), a testament to the importance of this gift as well as the Foundation’s extensive previous support.
In total, the Foundation has supported the Library with grants of over $60 million. The Library’s Board of Trustees Executive Committee approved the renaming at a recent meeting, and it was announced at the full Board of Trustees meeting.
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