Both book lovers and building lovers feel the loss of the Architectural League bookstore, which closed last year after losing its lease.  Just stepping off Madison Avenue into the lush, hushed stone courtyard of the Villard Houses,  where it was located, could lift one’s spirits.  So I was excited to hear that the Van Alen Institute was opening a new architecture bookstore/event space on West 22nd Street designed by LOT-EK.  A rendering released to the press a few months ago promised a bright, open space.

The bookstore itself, which opened this week, is something altogether different.  It’s the same size as the Architectural League bookstore but, unlike that store, which had floor-to-ceiling cases and a low, central table packed with lovingly-curated books, most of the Van Alen space is given over to a series of suspended, stepped wood benches.  They’re painted acid yellow, which makes for a happy spectacle that draws people inside.  But the books are tucked along one wall, on low, dark shelves that are impossible to reach without navigating the edges and undersides of the benches.  The space is small, certainly, and only temporary (there’s a six-month lease), but why wasn’t it planned more pragmatically?  LOT-EK’s groovy construction stylings (hardware-store materials, rough finishes, exposed connectors), which bring a fresh informality high-end retail and residential projects, seem provincial here.  An architectural bookstore could show a little more love for the books, and for the architecture.