PHOTOS: Instagram Celebrates New York Public Library's New Rose Main Reading Room

MIDTOWN, NY — The Rose Main Reading Room in the New York Public Library's famous Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue was closed for two years as part of a $12 million restoration project. It re-opened to the public Wednesday, but a day before its official open, a select group of Instagram photographers were given access to the room. Those photographers celebrated the iconic room through their photos, as well as people who have visited since the official opening. Patch gathered some of the most striking ones:

The renovations were prompted when an ornamental plaster rosette fell from the 52-foot-high ceiling overnight in May 2014, the NYPL said. Several other improvements were made over the past few years to the library, which was built in 1910, including recreating a 27-foot by 33-foot James Wall Finn mural on the ceiling of the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room. That particular mural hadn't been restored in the 1990s like other murals in the Rose Main Reading Room, so it had extensive damage, according to a fine arts conservator.

The Rose Main Reading Room and the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room are both open during the library's regular hours. There are daily tours of the building at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. You can also see a free exhibition of the preservation process on the third floor of the Schwarzman Building called "Preserving a Masterpiece: From Soaring Ceilings to Subterranean Storage" through Oct. 9.

Photo credit: Max Touhey Photography