Despite summer-like heat in the city, it was autumn at the New
York Public Library for the annual Library Lions dinner and awards ceremony planned by Kathryn Laino, the library's director of special events.
Outside the library, deep red spotlights lit the famous sentry lions on their pedestals to welcome arriving guests, who began the evening with a cocktail hour in Astor Hall. There, electric candelabras and white pillar candles in hurricane vases illuminated the space. David Monn designed a massive bouquet of autumn branches in a vase made of moss and mums to serve as the room's centerpiece. A trio of classical musicians from the Mannes College of Music at the New School set the mood.
After cocktails, the 360 guests moved to the Celeste Bartos Forum for dinner and the awards presentation. Monn filled the dining room with fall foliage. Giant tree branches rose from piles of leaves in the corners of the room and crept toward the center of the ceiling on cables. Spectrum Lighting lit the branches from below to throw delicate shadows around the room. Monn applied to the foliage a fragrance evocative of dried autumn leaves, giving the whole room a rustic atmosphere. The event's program, designed to look like an antique book, sat atop each guest's plate.
Glorious Food's three-course meal invoked a cozy Thanksgiving dinner: poached salmon, quail and pheasant pie, wild rice with walnuts and cranberries, and burnt caramel ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert. Varying arrangements of mums or fruit spilled over the top of large silver bowls for centerpieces.
—Alesandra Dubin
Read about last year's benefit...
York Public Library for the annual Library Lions dinner and awards ceremony planned by Kathryn Laino, the library's director of special events.
Outside the library, deep red spotlights lit the famous sentry lions on their pedestals to welcome arriving guests, who began the evening with a cocktail hour in Astor Hall. There, electric candelabras and white pillar candles in hurricane vases illuminated the space. David Monn designed a massive bouquet of autumn branches in a vase made of moss and mums to serve as the room's centerpiece. A trio of classical musicians from the Mannes College of Music at the New School set the mood.
After cocktails, the 360 guests moved to the Celeste Bartos Forum for dinner and the awards presentation. Monn filled the dining room with fall foliage. Giant tree branches rose from piles of leaves in the corners of the room and crept toward the center of the ceiling on cables. Spectrum Lighting lit the branches from below to throw delicate shadows around the room. Monn applied to the foliage a fragrance evocative of dried autumn leaves, giving the whole room a rustic atmosphere. The event's program, designed to look like an antique book, sat atop each guest's plate.
Glorious Food's three-course meal invoked a cozy Thanksgiving dinner: poached salmon, quail and pheasant pie, wild rice with walnuts and cranberries, and burnt caramel ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert. Varying arrangements of mums or fruit spilled over the top of large silver bowls for centerpieces.
—Alesandra Dubin
Read about last year's benefit...
At the New York Public Library's Library Lions benefit, guests had pre-dinner cocktails in Astor Hall.
Designer David Monn decorated Astor Hall with a massive bouquet of autumn branches in a vase made of moss and mums.
Guests dined in the Celeste Bartos Forum, which David Monn decorated with copious branches and a subtle fragrance.
On the tables, arrangements of fruit or mums spilled over the top of large silver bowls. The event's program, designed to look like an antique book, sat atop each guest's plate.
