A two-year renovation of the main reading room inside the New York Public Library's flagship building has been completed. Visitors are calling the results spectacular. NY1's Rocco Vertuccio filed the following report:
One of the city's most historic and iconic indoor spaces is open to the public for the first time in two years.
"This is the most beautiful room in New York possibly in the United States," said New York Public Library President Tony Marx.
The New York Public Library reopened its 105-year-old Rose Main Reading Room Wednesday, after $12 million of repairs and renovations. It's considered the people's palace, the library's main public area.
"Everyone is invited to come and study here read and be inspired and write and educate the next generation," Marx added.
The library shut down the reading room and the adjacent Bill Blass Catalog Room in 2014 after a plaster rosette fell from the 52 foot high ceiling. Crews had to reinforce all 900 rosettes with steel cable.
"They're all different sizes and they have different details some have walnuts some have cherries. Very intricate," said Anna Marie Prono, the restoration project manager.
The library also decided to inspect every square inch of the ceiling, the size of a football field, to make sure it's safe for future generations.
"We're confident that this will bring us for decades to come possibly to the beginning of another hundred years from now," said NYPL Director of Facilities Gerry Olivia.
Despite the digital age, the very old school library room is still a popular place with the public. It's where users can access the library's more than 50 million books, research materials and other items.
"People want to be here they use our computers they use our research collections and they want to be in this space," said NYPL Board of Trustees Vice Chairman Abby Milstein.
Next up for the library is renovating the Mid-Manhattan Library, the largest circulating library. That project is expected to start in two years.