New York Public Library Gets $100M for Expansion

NEW YORK—The New York Public Library is getting a $100 million donation from Stephen A. Schwarzman, and in return, the Central Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street is to be renamed for Schwarzman, a business executive and library trustee who made his fortune leading the Blackstone Group, the New York Times reports. The donation will kick-start the library system's $1 billion expansion plan. As part of the plan, the Central Library will become a destination for both book-borrowing and research, and the Mid-Manhattan branch on Fifth Avenue and 40th Street will be sold. Its collection will be absorbed into the expanded Central Library. The building will bear an inscription of Schwarzman's name on either side of the main entrance. Schwarzman said the $100 million would be dispersed over the next couple of years. The library has an extensive art collection, which was the subject of controversy in 2005, when the library sold 19 works to raise money to buy books, netting $53 million.