Sandro Marpillero founded Marpillero Pollak Architects with his wife, Linda Pollak, in 1998. The firm has completed a number of projects requiring a mix of professionalism and patience. The latest is an extraordinary public library in Elmhurst, Queens, a 30,500-square-foot ground-up building that required Marpillero and Pollak to satisfy a long list of stakeholders over a decade of design and construction. 

The building, completed last year, is extremely popular with the community; on a recent weekday morning, a crowd was waiting outside for the doors to open. And for good reason: The organization of the building makes readers of books in languages other than English—and there are many in this part of Queens—feel central to the institution’s mission.