After our NYPL briefing I googled what other designers and architects had done at NYPL in the past:
An impressing exhibition was done by Pentagram in the Gottesman Gallery in 2011 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
Check out the details and more pics:
http://new.pentagram.com/2011/05/new-work-celebrating-100-years/
A little bit older, but still interesting to see: The Raft Architects’ project from 2002 included the renovation of Gottesman Hall and Wachenheim Room and a new exhibition design with free-standing wall cases with fiberoptic lightning:
http://www.raftarchitects.com/newyorkpubliclibrary/