Libraries: An example of why defining Urban Design as the leading Comp Plan Element is so important

One of the things I need to testify about concerns the fact that once a Comprehensive Plan is enacted, it is often ignored. But that's another blog entry...

Urban design means respecting the street, connecting to the world beyond the site, having appropriate massing and setback. In a city, which it shouldn't have to be pointed out that DC is, urban design centers upon the pedestrian experience.

The absolute best treatment of the concept of urban design right now is a paper co-authored by Jan Gehl, "Close encounters with buildings." Read it! Another good explanation is this article from Governing Magazine, "Pride of Place," about the work being done by Project for Public Spaces.

This nice list from Wikipedia also does a good job; urban design considers:

Structure – How a place is put together and how its parts relate to each other
Accessibility – Providing for ease, safety and choice when moving to and through places
Legibility – Helping people to find their way around and understand how a place works
Animation – Designing places to stimulate public activity
Function & fit – Shaping places to support their varied intended uses
Complementary mixed uses – Locating activities to allow constructive interaction between them
Character & meaning – Recognizing and valuing the differences between one place and another
Order & incident – Balancing consistency and variety in the urban environment in the interests of appreciating both
Continuity & change – Locating people in time and place, including respect for heritage and support for contemporary culture
Civil society – Making places where people are free to encounter each other as civic equals

Anyway, here is a statement from the DC Library System planning document "A Blueprint for Change ," (page 19) that is antithetical to urban design:

Branch libraries must be designed in such a way that people passing by in a car, in a bus, or on foot become aware of the building and are attracted to enter and use the facility. The branch must present an open, inviting, and attractive front with a clearly visible entrance. It is recommended that, where possible, the branch library be a single story building with a minimum of 20,000 square feet.

First, this statement is disingenuous. There are many branch or regional libraries in other communities that are multiple stories. The libraries are funded and managed in such a manner that there aren't security and staffing problems. It is the size of the facility that for the most part dictates staffing, not the number of floors specifically.

Second, neighborhoods in DC are not well-served by sprawling car-oriented government buildings. One only has to pay attention to how suburban Post Offices have been disconnected from commercial districts and put out in more driveable places to discern the negative impact from such a policy.

One such example illustrating both these points is the just opened in January 2006 five-story Bronx Library Center in New York City.

Is NYC terribly out of touch with library site planning, and DC at the forefront of new trends? Not likely.

For the most part (if only because of the cost of land, and the typical density and scale of NYC neighborhoods), the New York City government constructs buildings respecting the fundamentally urban character of the city. By comparison, DC too often aggressively suburbanizes with its government-funded and/or supported projects.

Third, DC's branch libraries should be placed in commercial districts to help provide additional reasons to patronize the commercial district, to be located in areas with rich transit assets, to minimize car orientation, and to strengthen the built environment.

And speaking of examples, the new Rockville, Maryland library I mentioned in a blog entry last week is also relevant. According to the article, "Rockville library moving into developing downtown area," in the Examiner on October 5th:

Hamilton said the soon-to-be-opened, three-story facility will have everything the old Rockville library lacked: meeting rooms, group study areas, tutor rooms and, for computer-savvy cardholders, plenty of computers and wireless access for laptops. There also will be a massive Library of Congress talking books program, and the site will be the location for the county’s special-needs book program.

“It’s more accessible, it’s larger and it’s going to have a much larger circulation collection,” said Barbara Norland, a public services administrator for the county’s libraries. About 60,000 new books and collections will be added to the existing 140,000 volumes, according to county estimates.

This library is part of a commercial district, an urban center, it satisfies multiple needs, and it is appropriately and compactly designed and constructed.

A Blueprint for Change continues with more language that needs to be parsed:

A branch library is a civic building that will be used at least fifty to seventy-five years. Therefore, materials used for the facade as well as for the structure and interior, should be durable and easily maintained. ...

The design and construction of a new branch library provides a unique opportunity for the District and the DCPL to address some of the most pressing needs of District residents. Effective facility design dictates and the layout of the branch libraries in the District of Columbia must support the service goals that are established to address the needs of District residents. ...

There is a great line in a song by Billy Bragg: "a busy girl buys beauty, a pretty girl buys style, but a simple girl buys what she's told to buy."

Is the DCPL Board busy, pretty, or simple?

Is the Library System calling for a piece of s*** building easily maintained--which means some value-engineered piece of junk--or one that truly respects civic life and democracy, intended to add to the beauty and quality of the neighborhood?

District residents deserve public buildings that are much more than four walls and a roof.

From Public Buildings: American Images :

The public buildings of the pre-World War II era, taken as a whole, reflect a heritage we can be proud of. They attest to the fact people cared about the civic nature of their cities and towns. The key public buildings in cities and towns, large and small, were usually well-designed and intended to be centerpieces of the community.

From the very first, American leaders thought the design of public buildings important: "Public buildings in size, form and elegance must look beyond the present day," noted George Washington.

And, not surprisingly, Thomas Jefferson observed that: "How is a taste in [the] beautiful art [of architecture] to be formed in our countrymen unless we avail ourselves of every occasion when public buildings are to be erected of presenting to them models for their study and imitation?"

Making Urban Design the predominant element of the Comprehensive Plan would require that facilities planning and management actions by all District Government agencies would have to be done in concert with urban design-compact development provisions, not some underformed suburban-oriented policy preferences.

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There's a great quote about the impact of libraries, particularly Carnegie-funded libraries, around the country:

"In many towns, Carnegie libraries were the only large public buildings, and they became hubs of social activities like concerts, lectures, and meetings and did double duty as museums and community storehouses."

-- from Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy by Theodore Jones

DC has four Carnegie-funded libraries, the old central library downtown, the Northeast and Southeast branch libraries, and one other (I don't know which one).

Usually, urban neighborhoods have the same kinds of needs as an entire city, just on a smaller scale. Libraries can serve that role, but the way that they do so should also acknowledge the broader context of urbanity beyond the normal dictates of the Library System.

Urban buildings must be designed and built in a manner that respects and extends the urban form.

Too often, DC Government agencies act in a manner that is completely opposite.

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking; libraries