[L to R]: C&G Partners Managing Partner and Co-founder Jonathan Alger, Newark Public Library Board of Trustees Member Dr. Timothy J. Crist, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark Public Library Director Joslyn Bowling Dixon, Shawmut Director Sharvil Patel

Shawmut celebrated the opening of the Philip Roth Personal Library at the Newark Public Library, an installation that captures the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s engagement with reading, writing, and community. Members of the Shawmut team who built the space were on hand to commemorate the ribbon cutting on Monday, June 7 in Newark, New Jersey.

“It was a true honor to be a part of this project, one that created a living tribute to a great American author whose lifelong connection to Newark and its people is profound,” said Sharvil Patel, director at Shawmut Design and Construction. “Together with Ann Beha Architects, C&G Partners, and NPL, we created a space that is set to inspire and influence generations to come.”

Located within the historic four-story Italian Renaissance-style building, the Philip Roth Personal Library houses items from his personal collection, including several thousand books from his Manhattan and Connecticut homes. The library also received Roth’s standing writing desk, Eames reading chair, and other furniture from his writing studio in Connecticut, along with literary awards including his Pulitzer, correspondence from other authors as well as typewriters, baseball caps, posters, and academic gowns.

The ribbon cutting included speakers Joslyn Bowling Dixon, Newark Public Library Director; Lauren Wells, President of the Board of Trustees of the Newark Public Library; Mayor Ras Baraka; Ann Beha, Founding Principal of Ann Beha Architects, Jonathan Alger, Managing Partner at C&G Partners, and Sharvil Patel, Director at Shawmut Design and Construction.