were to be repaired; and various components would be restored. All of the work was scheduled to be completed by the centennial in 2011. Library director Paul LeClerc said in 2007 that "my ambition is for this to be the building you simply must see in New York at nighttime because it is so beautiful and it is so important." By late 2007, library officials had not yet decided whether to try to restore damaged sculptural elements or just clean and "stabilize" them. Cleaning would be done either with lasers or by applying poultices and peeling them off. Stephen A. Schwarzman donated $100 million toward the renovation and expansion of the building, and in April 2008, the library announced that the main branch building would be renamed in his honor. As a condition of the gift, Schwarzman's name would be displayed at each public entrance. Later that year, British architect Norman Foster was chosen to design the Main Branch's renovation. To pay for the renovations, the New York Public Library was attempting to sell the Mid-Manhattan and Donnell branches, the latter of which had already found a buyer. Nicolai Ouroussoff, former architecture critic for The New York Times, opined that Foster's selection was "one of a string of shrewd decisions by the library that should put our minds at ease". 2010s: the Central Library Plan and after By 2010, while renovations on the Main Branch were ongoing, the New York Public Library had cut back its staff and budget in other branches following the Great Recession of 2008. In 2012, a Central Library Plan was announced, in which the nearby Mid-Manhattan Library and Science, Industry and Business Library would be closed, and that the Main Branch would be turned into a circulating library. As part of the plan, over a million books would have been put into storage in the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP) warehouse in New Jersey, shared with Princeton University and Columbia University. Although some critics praised the plan as a move that would allow visitors to make greater use of the Main Branch's research facilities, a majority spoke out against it, with one editorial deriding it as "cultural vandalism". Academics, writers, architects and civic leaders signed a letter of protest against the plan, and Princeton history professor Anthony Grafton wrote that "readers who want to consult a book will often have to order it in