The Center for Fiction

The Center for Fiction, founded in 1820 as the Mercantile Library, is the only organization in the United States devoted solely to the art of fiction. Relocated from Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn, its headquarters provides 17,000 square feet of resource-rich space for literary professionals and enthusiasts. The program includes a circulating collection of more than 100,000 fiction titles, a bookstore, café, auditorium for programming, a writer’s studio, discussion rooms, and administrative offices.BKSK’s design vision creates a locally rooted framework for timeless stories—those already written, those being put to paper, and those yet to unfold between New Yorkers and the world around them. Books, text, and art are woven throughout the space to create an architecture of stories that is open and welcoming. Warm natural materials, 19th-century-inspired metalwork, and environmental graphics establish the Center as a vibrant “third place” for reading, research, and inspiration. The project is LEED Gold certified.