Oct. 10, 2025

A Trip to the Library, Reimagined
for Creatives

WORDS SIMONE OLIVER

What started as an archive became a movement.

Library180 isn’t just a space. It’s a living, breathing creative ecosystem where designers, editors, and photographers trade ideas in real time. Part library, part laboratory, entirely devoted to the creative process. In an age defined by the express lane of digital life, Library180 — like 72 Magazine — reminds us of the power of the tangible: the pause, the page, the permanence of print.

Edward Enninful recently dropped by Library180 in the Financial District of New York City to hand-deliver the debut issue of 72 Magazine, a fitting exchange between two forces committed to community, conversation, and creative legacy.

Get a glimpse inside (and we hope you visit one day as it’s open to the public, however, visits are appointment-only) as Edward joins co-founders Nikki Igol and Steven Chaiken to explore how this space became more than a room.

EE72

What was the moment you realized Library180 could be more than a space?

Library180

It was gradual. You start to notice people using the space differently: pulling, scanning, referencing an image or a story for a project. The shift was subtle — it stopped being a quiet room for research and began to behave like part of a process.

EE72

How do you define ‘creative community,’ and what does it look like in practice at Library180?

Library180

A creative community is defined by an exchange — it’s built on conversation, collaboration. At L180, you’ll find a photographer next to a designer next to an editor, all responding to the same image in very different ways. It’s a live exchange of ideas — sharing references, disagreeing, discovering — that’s what keeps the space alive and evolving.

EE72

What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in building Library180, and what did it teach you?

Library180

Starting something new — with little precedent — is always a risk. We didn’t know how people would respond, if they’d come. It taught us that there’s a hunger for physical spaces that invite discovery and depth. People are craving tangible — something that slows them down.

EE72

New York has always been a city of reinvention (for better and worse) — how does Library180 reflect the city’s energy?

Library180

New York City is perpetual reinvention — that tension between history and what’s next. L180 sits in that space: built on the past, alive in the present — honoring what came before us and fueling what’s coming next.

EE72

What’s the creative tension or difference between the two of you as co-founders that makes Library180 stronger?

Library180

We work differently, but towards the same goal. Nikki leads with creative instinct — her ideas and references are visual, intuitive, and rooted in a strong sense of storytelling. Steven’s focused on how to bring these ideas to life — how they take shape, how they function, & how they reach people. That back-and-forth is constant — it’s that creative tension that keeps things balanced and moving forward.

EE72

How do your personal styles—whether in art, design, or daily life—show up in the DNA of Library180?

Library180

The aesthetic draws from our shared visual language as much as by our histories — from the 1980s Italian design we both love — a nod to our former workplace, (which was an all-white SoHo loft punctuated with sharp red accents ) — And, of course, anchored in Nikki’s archive, which remains the core of the space.

EE72

What daily habit or creative ritual keeps you inspired and aligned with Library180’s mission?

Library180

We’re always looking. Flipping through new issues, dissecting and discussing what’s being made — part habit, part obsession. We’re constantly in conversation about what we’re seeing, why something works (or doesn’t) — and that’s what L180 celebrates / this act of paying attention.

EE72

If someone walked into Library180 for the first time tomorrow, what experience or feeling do you hope they leave with?

Library180

We hope they experience the mix of excitement and curiosity that comes with discovery. We hope they leave inspired, maybe a little overwhelmed, but with new ideas they didn’t walk in with.

EE72

Which historical figure would you love to have over for a late-night library chat, and which issue of which publication would you pull out to chat about?

Library180

Tibor Kalman. His work lives all over the archive — in Colors, Interview, i-D, The Face — magazines that treated design as dialogue. We’d pull an early issue of Colors from the mid-’90s and talk about how radical it felt — smart, political, visual in equal measure. He understood art direction was a form of authorship, that design could carry an argument as strongly as the words themselves.

EE72

How can creative spaces like Library180 redefine access in arts and culture?

Library180

Library180 is a 501(c)(3) built on open access — free, public, & credential-free. The response makes it clear how needed that is — our waitlist now extends well into next year, and we’re actively working to meet the demand.

EE72

Magazines once defined cultural taste. How do you see their role evolving now, especially in a space like Library180?

Library180

Magazines are the cultural arbiters. In a world defined by speed and fragments, they preserve a moment in full: a complete point of view, the collective vision of everyone who shaped it. Unlike the endless scroll of disposable content, a physical magazine holds context and continuity. At L180, you can see those moments preserved — the evolution of culture, printed and permanent, still informing what comes next.