William and Anita Newman Library

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The William and Anita Newman Library is Baruch College’s main library for students and faculty. It sits on the 2nd through 5th floors of the Information and Technology Building at 151 East 25th Street in Rose Hill, Manhattan, with entrances on East 25th Street to the south and East 26th Street to the north.

The building began life in 1895 as the Lexington Building, the power house for the Lexington Avenue cable car line. It later became an electrical substation and office space. Baruch College purchased the building in the late 1980s–1990s and renovated it for library and academic use, opening the Newman Library in 1994.

Architecturally, it was designed by J. William Schickel in Italian Renaissance style. The seven-story brick building with a basement features granite and terra cotta trim and a cast-iron interior. The central lightwell was turned into an atrium with a glass roof, creating a skylight about 90 feet tall and 70 feet wide, with indoor trees on the seventh floor.

The Newman Library on floors 2–5 seats about 1,450 people; the second floor used to be the engine room. The sixth floor houses Baruch Computing and Technology Center, and the seventh floor contains the Newman Conference Center and several offices. The ground floor includes the Media Center, Wasserman Trading Floor, and Subotnick Financial Services Center.

Transportation options include the M101, M102, and M103 buses, the M23 Select Bus Service, and the nearby 23rd Street–Baruch College and 28th Street stations on the 6 train.

Renovation of the building for Baruch’s campus cost about $153.5 million and was completed in 1994, with the library dedicated on May 19, 1994.