New York Public Library Main Branch

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the main branch of the New York Public Library at 476 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, was designed by the architects Carrere and Hastings in the Beaux-Arts style and opened on May 23, 1911. Its marble facade is built of some 20,000 individually numbered blocks of stone, and its Fifth Avenue entrance is flanked by twin stone lions, nicknamed Patience and Fortitude, that have become well known symbols of the library. Inside, the Rose Main Reading Room measures 78 by 297 feet beneath a 52-foot ceiling, and the building's book stacks, built largely of Vermont and Tennessee marble, extend underground beneath the adjoining Bryant Park along roughly 84 miles of shelving; the library held about 2.5 million volumes as of 2015. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and underwent a renovation beginning in 2007 that cost about 100 million dollars.