Lots of Glass, not Enough Cash

Lots of Glass not Enough Cash
Brooklyn Public Library admitted last week that it is struggling to raise enough money to build a chic - and expensive - Visual and Performing Arts Library at Flatbush and Lafayette avenues in Fort Greene.

Designed by architect-of-the-m oment Enrique Norten, the slinky, all-glass, ship-bow-shaped library will cost between $70 and $85 million.

"The biggest question right now is where we will find the money to build," said Brooklyn Public Library Executive Director Ginnie Cooper.

To jumpstart the latest fundraising campaign, on Tuesday, the library had Norten show off tweaks in his well-received design to the library's board of trustees.

The project's glistening architectural benchmarks remain, but now include more commercial space than the prior version, a revision that reflects the need for private sources of income to sustain the building's costs.

"It is not easy to fund cultural institutions," said Norten, "Not only will cafes and shops on the ground floor work financially, they will bring life to the public space."

But they can only do that if it gets built - something that appears to be in serious doubt.

Part of Norten's presentation was simply to remind the library board of the spectacular qualities of the proposed design.

But he also showed off the increased the amount of inside space