Rose Main Reading Room at New York Public Library to Open in Just Two Days

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Bookworms, unite! Two rooms at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street will open back up to the public on Wednesday after more than two years of being closed for a historic project on restoration, the library announced last month.

Gorgeous photos of the $12 million restoration projects on the iconic Rose Main Reading Room and Bill Blass Public Catalog Room were documented over the past few years by photographers for the NYPL.

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building's two historic rooms on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street will open at 10 a.m. on Oct. 5. Daily tours will be given of both rooms at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

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.

Here are some new photos of the Rose Main Reading Room after renovation, just released by the NYPL. There are dozens more to be seen at the library's free exhibition, called "Preserving a Masterpiece: From Soaring Ceilings to Subterranean Storage," which features 75 never-before-seen photos of the building. The exhibition is open now until Oct. 9.

All images by Max Touhey Photography, courtesy of NYPL