Strangers in the Mies

Don't mess with the Architect.

I signed up to speak tomorrow at the Mies, for the Mies. If you live in the District and you value high visual culture, or box-y shapes, stop by the MLK Library at 1 p.m. to watch Councilmember Kathy Peterson wither under the cadence of my searing, hardboiled questions. (Well, no promises. I have about as much time to prepare as the public was given advance time on this Council-recess town hall meeting by Mayor Williams.)

Sommer forwarded me a letter from Alex Padro, an ANC commissioner, former library trustee, and current G.p man crush. His considerations echo and expand on my own, plus he knows what he's talking about, so I'm including his full letter below the cut. Key lines—a ballpark estimate for renovating the Mies:

No one who has visited the MLK Library can dispute that after 30 years of neglect and deferred maintenance due to budget crunches, the building is in need of an overhaul. In 2000, while I served on the DC Library Board of Trustees, the Urban Design Committee of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects prepared a plan that would transform the library into a more welcoming and functioning place, while respecting the original architect's vision.

These plans included adding the fifth story that was originally provided for, replacing the warren of offices in the center of the building's upper floors with a skylit atrium extending from the second to fifth floors, a new theater-style auditorium and art gallery space, and space for events that could be rented out for corporate events, weddings, and the like, with rooftop gardens. This was a compelling vision that Mayor Williams accepted, and one that was comparable in cost to building a new library of equal size elsewhere. [emphasis added]

Then Andrew Altman was hired as the director of the Office of Planning and decided that what DC really needed was a new, smaller downtown library at the old Convention Center site as a cultural anchor, and that the historic MLK library should be disposed of. Preservationists and community leaders responded that the building should be renovated so it could continue to serve its intended purpose, not be replaced, with the natural fear that if the building was no longer city property, it might be horribly altered or demolished. Altman has come and gone, but his nefarious plan is still here, and could become a reality. And the Historic Preservation Review Board refuses to hear the landmark application that has been filed for the Mies building until the library decides what it wants to do with it.

URGENT: Stop Possible Loss of Mies Designed Library in DC, 04/22/06 Many RPPN members have asked me during the past several years what they could do to help save the endangered Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in Downtown Washington, DC (see http://www.recentpast.org/types/library/mlklib/index.html for details and photos). The time has come when an outcry from across the nation could help stop the potential loss of this important building, the only library building Mies ever designed.

A town hall meeting to collect public opinion on Mayor Anthony A. Williams' proposal to lease the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library (MLK Library), one of the nation's first tributes to our nation's preeminent civil rights leaders, will be held on Saturday, April 22, 2006, at 1:00 PM at the library, located at 901 G Street, NW. If you live in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, I urge you to call the office of the DC Council's Committee on Education, Libraries, and Recreation at 202-724-8195 and register to speak against this proposal at the town hall meeting. If you do not live in the area, please see the end of this message to learn how you can still register your opinion.

Mayor Williams has quietly included in the city's Fiscal Year 2007 budget a provision that he be given the authority to lease the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library for 99 years to an entity yet to be determined. This lame-duck mayor would use the proceeds to pay for part of the construction of a new central public library building at the site of the city's old Convention Center, currently a parking lot, two blocks away from the current main library.

No one who has visited the MLK Library can dispute that after 30 years of neglect and deferred maintenance due to budget crunches, the building is in need of an overhaul. In 2000, while I served on the DC Library Board of Trustees, the Urban Design Committee of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects prepared a plan that would transform the library into a more welcoming and functioning place, while respecting the original architect's vision.

These plans included adding the fifth story that was originally provided for, replacing the warren of offices in the center of the building's upper floors with a skylit atrium extending from the second to fifth floors, a new theater-style auditorium and art gallery space, and space for events that could be rented out for corporate events, weddings, and the like, with rooftop gardens. This was a compelling vision that Mayor Williams accepted, and one that was comparable in cost to building a new library of equal size elsewhere.

Then Andrew Altman was hired as the director of the Office of Planning and decided that what DC really needed was a new, smaller downtown library at the old Convention Center site as a cultural anchor, and that the historic MLK library should be disposed of. Preservationists and community leaders responded that the building should be renovated so it could continue to serve its intended purpose, not be replaced, with the natural fear that if the building was no longer city property, it might be horribly altered or demolished. Altman has come and gone, but his nefarious plan is still here, and could become a reality. And the Historic Preservation Review Board refuses to hear the landmark application that has been filed for the Mies building until the library decides what it wants to do with it.

DC residents remember that the last time the city entered into a long-term lease for a major public building, the Wilson Building, our city hall, at a time when we could not afford to renovate it ourselves, the District government had to spend millions to get the building back from the developer a few years later. The District government needs to learn from the mistakes it has made in the past and not lease major public buildings like the MLK Library while they are still needed for their intended purposes, just because we don't have the cash in hand to renovate them.

Our city has been able to find a way to fund what will ultimately be a $1 billion dollar baseball stadium. We need to similarly agree to renovate a landmark building that houses an institution that is both a tribute to one of the most important leaders our country has ever known, an institution intended to uplift and enrich all of our citizens, at a cost that is comparable to constructing a building of the same size as we currently own.

Selling or leasing the space allotted for a new library on the old Convention Center site and using the proceeds to help pay for renovating the MLK Library makes far more sense. Together with income from renting out space for special events, a cafe and bookstore in the building, and leasing out excess space in the MLK Library if indeed less space is needed than the renovated building would offer would also help offset the cost of renovations, making it possible for the Council and a new mayor (Williams is not running for reelection, and his term ends this year) to move forward and transform the current library into the 21st century learning and cultural center that our city deserves, preserving Mies' legacy.

The long and the short of the current situation is that Williams, afraid that public opinion would kill another of his grand plans to create a legacy for himself (the National Capital Medical Center appears to be effectively dead in the water at this time), is trying to slip this endorsement of his plans to replace the MLK library with space for a new, smaller library in a mixed use building at the old Convention Center site through with as little attention as possible. And Councilmember Kathy Patterson, chair of the DC Council committee with oversight over libraries, is accommodating Williams by holding a meeting that is not a Council hearing, during the council's recess, with less than a week's notice and minimal outreach to the public, in order to further minimize public comment on this proposal before the Council votes on the budget early next month.

Hence my request that you take the time to try to stop Mayor Williams from once again selling off public property, the people's property, simply because developers and planners, dreaming of windfall profits at public expense, want to bring the MLK Library, one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in Downtown Washington, under their control, to deface and mutilate as they wish, while our citizens end up with a library in a basement a few blocks away.

If you admire Mies and honor his contributions to American and world architecture, I ask that you speak out against this outrage that is about to perpetrated against the only building of his design in the nation's capital. DC doesn't have a building by Frank Lloyd Wright, has nothing designed by Le Corbusier, but we do have a Mies van der Rohe building. For now.

I hope to see you on Saturday afternoon. But if you cannot attend, at least email, write, or call Councilmember Patterson to express your concerns. She can be reached at kpatterson@dccouncil.us and 202-724-8062.


Alex

Alexander M. Padro
Commissioner, ANC 2C01
1519 8th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001-3205
Voice: 202-518-3794
Email: PadroANC2C@aol.com
Website: www.members.aol.com/PadroANC2C