New Lots Public Library
The New Lots Branch Library will be a new educational and cultural building in Brooklyn that celebrates African American culture and honors the site's history as a formerly-unacknowledged African Burial Ground.
MASS partnered with the Brooklyn Public Library and Marble Fairbanks Architects to revitalize the New Lots Branch Library, a building discovered to have been built on a historic African burial ground. The project engages descendant communities and creates a place to honor buried ancestors, while positioning the library as a foundational driver of social cohesion and community equity. More than a repository for books, the new branch supports expanding definitions of literacy—embracing cultural, historical, and civic learning alongside traditional education. By integrating remembrance with active community use, the library becomes both a vital civic resource and a site of healing, reconciliation, and restorative justice, strengthening the social fabric of East New York.
The design of the branch, plaza, and landscape continues a long arc of community-led reconciliation, building on efforts such as the 2013 renaming of the block as African Burial Ground Square and the 2019–2022 redesign of the soon-to-reopen Sankofa Park. Earth mounds supported by metal walls create a sense of movement and moments for reflection, each inscribed with empowering quotes or affirmations that resonate with community pride. Tree trunks frame sightlines through the site, guiding views toward the plaza and the building’s veil-like façade.
To respect the burial ground, the building is pulled back from the site and connected to Sankofa Park by echoing its ellipses and circles. The design introduces a Remembrance Plaza and smaller Reflection Circle, oriented to the park’s reinterment marker for quiet contemplation. Bronze legacy markers are woven into the veil, creating a tapestry of colors that reflect the community's diversity and history. The legacy markers will be inscribed with the important history of the site and frame views to the Remembrance Plaza and East New York beyond.
As visitors move through the library, the veil morphs into structural elements, walls, and pathways, transforming their experience at every turn. Balconies on the third floor frame views of the plaza through the veil, while additional legacy markers provide historical context, inspirational quotes, and words of reflection to guide the journey.
The New Lots Library creates a form that is visible from the street, serving as a cultural education center and space for community activism, celebration and truth telling. It sits directly across from the Dutch Reformed Church and the cemetery that once held the enslavers of those buried here. It acts as a beacon on the transformational journey from trauma to black joy through the creation of spaces for learning, gathering, healing, and celebration.
The project is in progress, with construction anticipated to begin in late 2025 and the library opening in early 2028. Learn more here.
