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Cornell’s new library exposes students to more than literature

At this library, it’s the patrons that get browsed.

The sleek new library at Cornell University has a design flaw that allows people to see up the skirts of anyone browsing for books, students and reports say.

The state-of-the-art building — which took more than $21 million to build over five years — features elevated platforms with see-through grated floors that put visitors on full view as people pass below, the students say.

“I wore a dress and felt bad about it, discriminated against, like the space wasn’t meant for me,” student Nicole Nomura, 28, told The Post.

She visited the Ithaca, NY, library in September, not long after its grand opening, and was “instantly disappointed” that it failed to consider women’s clothing.

“I thought, ‘I’m 100 percent sure a man designed this,” said Nomura, who is a second-year landscape architecture grad student. “Now I have to be mindful of what I wear.”

Nicole Nomura Cornell
Student Nicole Nomura is not pleased with her school’s see-through library design.

To reach many of the three-level shelves, students must climb up to the grated steel platforms then stand on the them, according to metropolismag.com, which was first to report the problem.

The architectural mag noted it had spoken to “multiple women” who have noticed the space’s “upskirt potential” and “adjusted their library use accordingly.”

In Nomura’s case, she opted simply not to search for books and hasn’t been back since, she said.

She now wants the school take steps to cover the platforms with a less see-through material.

But the architect behind the library, Wolfgang Tschapeller, said adding opacity to the grates will ruin the building’s airy open design.

“Coverings on top of the grating would literally destroy the project,” he told metropolismag.com in an email. “The flow of space and flow of air are essential for the project.”

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The architect of the building said making the floors opaque would "destroy" the design.
Cornell library
The architect of the building said making the floors opaque would "destroy" the design.
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There is more privacy on the building’s mezzanine stairs, which have solid flooring, the outlet noted.

The 27,000 square foot building, which is largely built with steel, offers a panoramic view through three levels of raised platforms.

Cornell and Tschapeller didn’t return requests for comment Thursday.
https://nypost.com/2019/11/14/cornells-new-library-exposes-students-to-more-than-literature/
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