Justice Department orders Queens Public Library to make LIC branch accessible
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The city and the Queens Public Library will remedy ADA compliance issues at the Hunters Point Library following a court settlement. Photo via Queens Public Library
By Ryan Schwach
The Hunters Point branch of the Queens Public Library will be getting a host of accessibility fixes after they were ordered to do so following a court settlement.
In the settlement in the Eastern District Court of New York, QPL and the city must remedy the myriad of accessibility issues that rendered three entire floors of the mezzanine area of the relatively new Hunters Point branch – located at 47-40 Center Boulevard in Long Island City – completely inaccessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The library’s designer Steven Holl Architect is also being sued by the city, and the city is also being sued by advocates for the accessibility issues. The lawsuit against that architect, looking to recoup some of the city’s cost, is still active.
When the $40 million library opened in September 2019, it was lauded for its design and architecture. It was even the subject of a New York Times article headlined “Why Can’t New York City Build More Gems Like This Queens Library?”
“The new Hunters Point Library is both a stunning architectural marvel and a state-of-the-art hub of much-needed library services for the residents of western Queens,” said then-Queens Borough President Melinda Katz.
At the time, it was the first new library in Long Island City since 2007, and the 22,000-square-foot building featured a cyber center and a ground-floor meeting room that could seat up to 140 people.
However, issues with the building soon became apparent.
Complaints from locals, and even longtime advocates of the library, led to a class action lawsuit just after Thanksgiving that year, brought forward by the Center for Independence of the Disabled – New York.
In December of that year, the federal government carried out an accessibility review of the new building following the complaints and the initial lawsuit.
The review found 95 ADA violations, among them the lack of an accessible route to the three middle floors of the library.
The settlement, reached on Thursday of last week, orders QPL to complete the remediation work and make the building fully ADA compliant.
“The design and construction of the Hunters Point Library Branch of the Queens
Lauded for its architecture and design at the time of opening, the Hunters Point Library violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Queens Public Library is now required to make ADA fixes to the building. File photo via Queens Public Library
Borough Public Library blatantly violated the ADA’s requirement that individuals with
disabilities have equal access to public accommodations,” said United States Attorney Breon Peace. “[The] settlement agreement ensures that access. My office will continue to enforce the ADA and its protections against discrimination for people with disabilities.”
Primarily, the court ordered QPL and the city to install a platform lift from the fifth floor to the fourth floor, and a skybridge from the walkway leading from the children’s area of the library to the third and middle floor.
The library must also provide wheelchair spaces and companion seating on the lowest level of seating in the children’s area and will provide people with mobility disabilities priority access to those spaces, with appropriate signage indicating.
The rooftop area of the library must also be fitted with wheelchair spaces and accessibility.
The settlement requires that the library provide updates and a status report to the courts on the work being done, and if the city comes up with any better design ideas, they are to notify the court.
However, the library will not need to close in order to complete the work, QPL and the Department of Design and Construction said. They said the work will be completed this summer.
“DDC and QPL continue to work at Hunters Point Library to improve the building for all patrons,” the agencies said in a statement to the Eagle. “Construction work started last summer and is being done overnight so that the library can remain open during the work, which includes a new sky bridge and chair lift to create access to the mezzanine area.”
The settlement also meets the terms brought by the CIDNY class action lawsuit.
“We wanted it to be remedied, because we wanted to make sure that anyone with a disability coming into the building at any access point or any floor, could be able to access the library without any assistance,” said Dr. Sharan McLennon Wier, the executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled – New York.
While she is happy to see the work finally being done, she feels for the lack of access people with disabilities had before.
“We know that it's a win that they're going to make each and every section of the library accessible, but at the same time, it took multiple years for this new construction to get built, and now it's 2025 and the community doesn't have an accessible library,” she said. “[It’s] kind of sad.”
Local Queens residents and lawmakers said they are glad an effort to make the library accessible is finally underway.
"The Hunters Point Library should have always been built to meet accessibility standards,” said Councilmember Julie Won, whose predecessor was in office when the library opened. “The ADA improvements at Hunters Point Library will ensure that our neighbors with disabilities have full access to the library’s services.”
“We will continue to follow up with QPL to ensure that these improvements, as well as the additional improvements to make them ADA-compliant, are completed on time,” Won added.
