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Use Your Indoor Voice: A New Library Hotel for NYC

Where: W. 53rd Street [map], New York, ny, United States

The New York Public Library has recently agreed to sell its building and property for the West 53rd Street branch, The Donnell, to Orient-Express Hotels for $59 million.

Normally, that would just be another hotel transaction in the news but what's different about this sale is that the library will still maintain a presence on the hotel's first and underground floors. The rest of the floors will be for the hotel, with five of those having direct access to the storied 21 Club on 52nd street.

The sale may strike some as an odd mix of culture and commerce, but the library said it had little choice because the branch, built in 1955, was in dire need of renovations that the system could ill afford.

But have no fear. Guests won't have to check in amongst the stacks and deal with stares from mustachioed librarians. The hotel and the library will both have separate entrances and will be divided by a wall. The hotel will have 150 rooms but unlike a free public library, rooms will start at $750 a night.

And since it's connected to the 21 Club, the hotel name will have 21 somewhere in the name. A 2011 opening is expected. If you can't wait until then to sleep amongst the Dewey Decimal system, check into the Library Hotel on 41st and Madison.

While there will be a restaurant on the top floor, a hotel nightclub in the lobby is out of the question. And that's exactly the sentiment of Orient Express' CEO Paul White who said, "We don't want to be like everybody else," he added. "Why not share a building with a major institution like the New York Public Library? I'd rather have them in my basement than a nightclub."

[Photo: Michael Nagle for NYT]

Related Stories:
· New York Public Library's Donnell Branch to Share Space With Hotel [NY Times]
· The Donnell Branch [New York Public Library]