The decades-old New Lots Library building at 655 New Lots Avenue in East New York is gone, torn down this month after the city signed off on demolition to clear the way for a larger library on a site where free and enslaved African residents were buried generations ago. A ground acknowledgement ceremony is set for Thursday, marking the formal start of work on its replacement, even though construction at the site itself had not yet begun as of this report.
A 1950s Building Comes Down, a 2028 Replacement Takes Shape
The concrete library building, constructed in the 1950s, was recently demolished, according to a report from Brownstoner. In its place, Brooklyn Public Library plans a modern mass timber library that is expected to open in 2028, per the library's own project page, which describes Brooklyn Public Library's plans for the site. That page also states construction was tentatively expected to begin in fall 2025 and the library to reopen in 2028, though an earlier 2022 community engagement presentation had projected design and construction running through 2023 and 2024 with a grand opening in 2025 — a timeline the library's more recent statements have since superseded.
The new building was designed by MASS Design Group and Marble Fairbanks, the project architects named by Brooklyn Public Library. Descriptions of its size vary slightly: Brownstoner's coverage of the renderings describes a three-story, 25,000-square-foot library, while the library's own reconstruction page describes a 25,000-square-foot building with four levels and 14% more public space. Either way, the finished branch is intended to be considerably larger than what stood there before, offering what the library describes as more public space and a bigger facility overall.
Designed Around the Site's Buried History
The project sits on ground now officially recognized as African Burial Ground Square, with the adjoining city park renamed Sankofa Park, according to a 2022 Brooklyn Public Library engagement report. That same report states that free and enslaved African residents were buried in what had long been an unacknowledged burial ground beneath the current library and the adjacent park. Per Brownstoner's reporting, the construction site sits across the street from the 1823 Dutch Reformed Church and its 1840s cemetery, and the library site and park are reported to have held a Dutch Reformed Church schoolhouse and cemetery dating to the 17th century, with graves belonging to both Dutch and Black residents, including free and enslaved African Americans.
Those burial grounds were disturbed when the original library and park were built in the 1950s, according to the same Brownstoner account. A 2018 Parks Department study found human remains and burial artifacts under what is now Sankofa Park, and the remains were reinterred in 2019 in a section of the park now designated the East New York African Burial Ground, per that reporting.
Timber Beams, a Woven Facade, and a Permit Still in Limbo
Brooklyn Public Library says the new building is meant to honor the site's history as a formerly unacknowledged African Burial Ground. Its design, built using mass timber, will feature branch-like radial beams, and Brownstoner describes a curved, glassy exterior wrapped in a woven basket-like screen, with an interior featuring pale wood beams and columns meant to resemble trees and branches. The project also incorporates sustainability-related features.
Despite this week's ceremony, the paperwork hasn't fully caught up with the symbolism. A foundation work permit had been approved but not yet issued, according to city records cited in Brownstoner's reporting, and the permit for the new four-story building also remained unissued at the time of that report. The construction site itself, located between Barbey Street and Schenck Avenue, had not seen work begin as of the report.
Thursday's ceremony is expected to include Brooklyn Public Library alongside the project architects, Gilbane Building Company, the East New York African Burial Ground Collective, and Envoie Projects — a group that separately describes the plan as replacing the existing two-story library with a new three-story building, per Envoie Projects.
Community Input and a Library Branch in Limbo
The push for the new building traces back years. Community engagement on the project began in 2019 and continued through design unveilings in 2024, with the project itself announced that year. More than 420 people took part in the engagement process through surveys, meetings, focus groups, tabling sessions and workshops, according to the 2022 engagement report, which found residents wanted spaces highlighting East New York's culture and history, African-diaspora history, and educational resources about the burial ground itself. Brooklyn Public Library says fundraising for construction remains underway.
While the new library rises, the community isn't without library services. An interim New Lots Library branch opened in August on the campus of St. Paul Community Baptist Church at 818 Schneck Avenue, offering books, computers and an adult learning center, according to Brooklyn Public Library.
The city also completed a $4.9 million transformation of Sankofa Park in 2024, adding a commemorative area, play equipment, a basketball court, bathroom upgrades, fencing and seating, per the same reporting. The new library and refreshed park together are meant to give East New York both a bigger public resource and a visible acknowledgment of ground that, for decades, held an uncounted history beneath its surface.
