New York Public Library

As part of a $200 million renovation, Continental Woodcraft was called upon to produce custom architectural millwork for three spaces within the Historic New York Public library: the retail store, café and the library itself.

For the retail store, Continental had a hand in helping create the versatile shelving and cabinetry units, the center glass display case as well as repurposing three existing hand carved quartered oak tables. The versatile cabinet units feature a removable red backing pin board for staff to easily switch to slats for hanging products. The upper square compartments are also fitted with acoustic paneling to help dampen the sound in the space. The antique oak tables, were resized and refinished, cut down from 12 feet to 6 feet to accommodate the retail area needs.

In maintaining some of the original design and architecture with the updated look, at the architects’ request, the fronts of the antique card catalog cabinets were replicated to be incorporated into a new retail display fixture. In addition, to allow for new, modern LED lights, solid walnut rings were handcrafted for retrofitting into the existing antique, hand-carved French walnut ceiling. The ceiling itself was damaged beyond repair so Continental was also tasked with replacing some of the paneling to match the wood architecture.