$41.5M Queens library hailed as ‘marvel’ sued over disability access

The new $41.5 million Queens Public Library branch at Hunters Point, where design flaws have made it a target of critics since opening in September, could get even more expensive thanks to a new lawsuit demanding improvements to help disabled patrons.

In a class-action lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court, disabilities advocates say that Queens Public Library violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to ensure that disabled patrons will have equal access to all parts of the new branch.

When the branch opened, a three-tiered fiction section only had a single staircase leading up to it and was unreachable by the building’s single elevator.

The plaintiffs, the Center for the Independence of the Disabled and a Queens woman with mobility issues, say disabled people are also unable to reach the branch’s rooftop terrace and a reading space on the children’s floor.

The plaintiffs are calling on the library to “swiftly” execute plans to remove barriers to equal access to areas within the Hunters Point branch.

The suit was filed just two months after the 32,000-square foot library was opened to the public — at which point library officials hailed it as a “stunning architectural marvel” and a “beacon of learning, literacy and culture.”

“The newly-built Hunters Point Library was designed and built with a total disregard for adults and children with mobility disabilities and in flagrant contempt of the legal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” the 21-page lawsuit states.

Equal access issues are not the only problems that have arisen with the brand-new branch — The Post found that the building is plagued with leaky ceilings, as well as inadequate acoustics and space for shelves.

“It is always the Library’s goal to be welcoming, open and available to everyone, including customers with disabilities,” Elisabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for Queens Public Library, said in a statement. “We are taking this matter very seriously.”

The city is also named as a party to the suit and the city’s Law Department referred questions to Queens Public Library.

A senior partner with the architectural firm that designed the library publicly admitted that there was no priority given to people with disabilities, with a partner telling The New York Times “we hadn’t thought, ‘O.K. we have to provide an exactly equivalent browsing experience,’ ” the lawsuit states.

The architectural firm, Steven Holl Architects, is not named as a party to the suit. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.