Hunters Point Library Designer Sued By The City Amid ADA Violations

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — New York City filed a lawsuit last week against the designer of Hunters Point Library, claiming the facility is not accessible to people with disabilities.

The city is suing Steve Holl Architects for $10 million in damages, stating that the company breached its contract after it stipulated the $41 million library would be ADA-complaint.

The lawsuit claims that the central staircase, the second-floor children's area, and the library's rooftop terrace are not accessible, and the bathrooms are too narrow “for wheelchair maneuverability."

The city is seeking damages to “recover the costs of remediation, including design, engineering and construction, for which defendants are responsible due to their failure to design in compliance with applicable laws and regulations that mandate access for persons with disabilities, in breach of the contract with the city and in violation of their professional obligations.”

Steve Holl Architects did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Patch.

In 2019, the nonprofit legal center Disability Rights Advocates filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that the library excluded people with mobility issues from "full and equal access" to the facility and called for "the full and equal enjoyment" of any public accommodation., according to the lawsuit.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York sent an architectural expert to examine the library in December 2019, just three months after its opening, amid the lawsuit.

More than 130,000 Queens residents have a mobility-related disability, according to the Center for Independence of the Disabled New York.