New York pay phones get transformation
An architect from New York recently launched a program that transforms New York City’s phone booths into communal libraries.
The project, ran by John Locke, refurbishes old phone booths and turns them into shelves that hold books for city residents to take, read, put back or replace, according to pfsk.com
Using plywood, the bookshelf hangs securely to the inside of the phone booth. So far, these libraries have been installed in Morningwood Heights and Manhattan Valley.
“Even as they are rendered obsolete by the ubiquity of smartphones, I’m interested in pay phones because they are both anachronistic and quotidian,” Locke told Atlantic Cities. “But they can also be a place of opportunity, something to reprogram and somewhere to come together and share a good book with your neighbors.”
The idea of the libraries is that busy pedestrians will stop and grab a book on their way to wherever they are going, and then perhaps donate a book of their own the next day.
Of the two phone booths currently set up, one is working according to plan while the other has had it’s entire collection stolen. The first booth had all of the books stolen within a few days, and the shelves had disappeared by the end of the week.
Locke has several more phone booth libraries planned, as well.
“I was most interested in turning what is perceived as an urban liability into an opportunity,” he said.
