It’s hard to find a landmark building in Washington more polarizing than the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Designed by legendary German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the city’s central library was never much loved by Washingtonians. If anything, its popularity has gone downhill since its 1972 opening. [...]
But now, as a four-year process wends its way toward a final design, it’s clear Washingtonians shouldn’t expect a major overhaul of Mies’s flawed design.
— washingtonian.com
According to the Washingtonian, Mecanoo (the firm leading the redesign) will release updates to their redesign (along with local partner Martinez & Johnson) later this month. But only after many of the proposed redesign elements have already been nixed: a "3-story rooftop addition"; replacing the brick stairway enclosure with glass; turning windowless rooms into wide, open spaces. But, it's likely that the redesign will include:
Redesigning the Mies building is problematic for many reasons, especially considering Modernism's fraught reputation in the US, and the shifting status of public libraries. From Washingtonian:
"Modernism’s status as preservation-worthy is still relatively tenuous. The United States nominated its first examples of Modernist architecture to the UNESCO World Heritage List only earlier this year, all of them relatively romantic Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, not the strict rationalism of Mies and his contemporaries. Whatever design the [National Capital Planning Commission] ultimately sanctions, architects and critics around the world will watch to see how the District reconciles respect for the library with optimization of [DC Public Library's] needs.”
2 Comments
Well thankfully they got the cafe in. After that disaster of the lost Food Court in the Calatrava station in NYC, at least all the hungry people in DC will have some place to eat now.
All the little hungry children getting the literal (and proverbial) "Free Lunch" in the district, and all the "residentially impaired" members of the citizenry can now go to the library and get a mocha whipped half caf and a Cinnabun.
I mean what was Mies thinking? A library WITHOUT a cafe? Musta been Speer's influence. What kind of democratic republic would have a place where the citizens can access learning and information without proper access to pastries and (probably) mediocre (at best) coffee? Nothing quite like the sound of whipping up foamed milk to help one study and concentrate.
Thankfully civilization has finally reached the Nation's Capital.
#REKT
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