While I understand where you're coming from (and deeply enjoy marvellous spaces like the Rylands Library in Manchester), I have to recognise that libraries have a multitude of uses, of which "providing reading rooms" is just one. For many lower-class folks, free access to information is actually more important - and that's where the "shelving" comes in. A beautiful reading room with little to read for free, wouldn't be very useful to a lot of people. When I was a kid, scavenging my local library for fantasy and sci-fi, the most assiduous patrons were lower-class, the elderly and the borderline homeless, who would come in every day to read newspapers and check out books for free. They wouldn't have come otherwise, regardless of how beautiful the reading room might have been (well, maybe the homeless, but that's it).

These segments are now better served by what the NYT dismisses as "a Starbucks wannabe": a free internet node, possibly with curated portals. It might look unfashionable to the NYT, but it's the hard truth. This can absolutely be intersected with your "reading room" concept; I just don't think either concept can survive on its own.