Both [District Mayor Anthony] Williams and the library board want to replace Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, with a facility that would anchor the redevelopment of the old Washington Convention Center site. The task force estimated the cost at $280 million. [emphasis added]Elected officials in this city aren't seriously contemplating destroying the Van der Rohe, are they? That just can't be the case. They must mean to replace the library facility with another facility, located somewhere else, and in no way on the same site where stands one of the District's modern architectural gems.
I'm comfortable with moving the library (they won't let me borrow anyway, damn fines). The Van der Rohe is not being put to the best of its potential uses. It's not a space I'd prefer to be in to read, which is a library function that's taking greater precedence in design today—the library as a Starbucksian communal space—even if bureaucrats only ever talk about it in terms of the Internets. On the other hand, clearly, the building is the city's leading candidate for a dedicated contemporary arts center. As for all those books, isn't there an empty building up the road?
Posted by Kriston at January 18, 2006 11:18 AMYeah, but it should be "the Mies," not "the Van der Rohe." In a city with a somewhat uneven architectural landscape, you should certainly make an effort to preserve the bright spots.
Posted by: Sean at January 18, 2006 2:01 PMHey now, the DC Historical Society has a 99 year lease (well, now 94 year lease) to the Carnegie Library! Also, the Carnegie is neither big enough, nor provided with the necessary modern attributes (think wireless) to be an effective central library. Since the city is so hot on making the old Convention Center site a multi-use core of the city, why not include a modern facility there?
Posted by: Fletch at January 18, 2006 7:56 PMOh my god, I hate that building. I don't know if I hate it because it makes for such an unfriendly library or if I hate it because it seems an architectural embodiment of the spiritual void of, say, being a temp, or if I just hate it because I'm supposed to like it because some famous guy made an ugly building.
I know Kriston has tried to explain to me why I should like it but I keep forgetting. Tear down the wall!
Posted by: susan at January 20, 2006 7:37 AMthey have no plans to tear it down!
just relocated the central library to the old convention center site. i'm all for this plan of the mayors.
mlk sucks as a library.
maybe they could turn it into an arts center!
with, just for kicks, and indoor waterslide.
