Treading Carefully but Not Timidly in a Civic Masterpiece

I dont blame people for being nervous. It takes a certain hubris to mess with the noble Beaux-Arts structure that has dominated the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street for nearly a century. A product of the City Beautiful movement, the New York Public Library is one of the most glorious examples of civic architecture in America, a temple to the citys highest democratic ideals. Why tinker with it? NYT | earlier today