LERA was the structural engineer for the new BPL Adams Street Library in DUMBO. The 6,565-sf (610-sm) library houses library materials (books, media, etc), meeting rooms, facilities and programming space for children, teens and adults. Located on the ground floor of the landmarked 135 Plymouth Building, it is the first new public library branch built in Brooklyn since 1983, and features sweeping views of the Manhattan Bridge and Hudson River. The building was originally constructed as an industrial manufacturing facility, and the new library design creatively incorporates and celebrates the historic masonry and heavy timber construction.

LERA helped develop the renovation design to preserve and expose the existing heavy timber structure in the building. LERA’s condition assessment and evaluation of the existing timber informed where and how the new structure attached to the existing timber so that it wasn’t overstressed.