Hearing today on legislation to build a new central library in DC

The hearing starts at 10 a.m., in the District Building, before the Committee on Education, Libraries, and Recreation.

The bill calls for (1) leasing the current MLK Library building; (2) sing the revenues from the lease to build a new library; (3) issuing $90 million of bonds; (4) $50 million to go towards the Central Library; and (5) $40 million to fund improvements to neighborhood libraries.

Last week, the DC Library Renaissance Project had a teach-in on renovating and expanding the current MLK Library. A number of people wrote about the teach-in in last Sunday's issue of themail.

I'm torn. The current library stinks. But it is bigger than the proposed new central library. Moving to a smaller facility makes no sense. We are by no means at a point where digital information has supplanted the need for (and space required to store) printed materials.

I don't agree with a number of the points made by the DC Library Renaissance Project. Mixed use isn't a bad thing, and it can help stabilize and revitalize neighborhoods.

Plus, given the relative compactness of the city, it might make sense to have few neighborhood libraries (although I think we do need more libraries, not fewer libraries) given the easy accessibility of the Central Library to goodly portions of the city.

I also think they are wrong in stating that improving neighborhood libraries is a more serious priority than improving the central library.

The central library should be as good as a college library, with different kinds of depth and strengths of course. The DC Central Library doesn't compare. And the collection is weak. I can't help but compare the DC Central Library to some of the central libraries I've visited such as New York City, Brooklyn, Cleveland, Houston, Portland, etc. (not to mention the cities with newly constructed libraries) and I shake my head.

This is the rendering of a restored and slightly expanded MLK Jr. Central Library (by one floor, I say if you're going to expand, do the full two floors in the original design, eventually the space will be needed and it will only cost more later).

See the feasibility study for rehabilitating the MLK Jr. library by Kent Cooper/American Institute of Architects. Read the study in PDF form.

Remember my bias though, too often architects design buildings as objects, personal expressions, rather than think through the issues and design buildings to be great places for people.

That's the difference between architecture and placemaking.

It's why I wonder if it is possible for the Central Library to be remade into a decent library.

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