Two more cents on the library issue

Martin Luther King, Jr. Central Library, Washington, DC. Post photo.

There is an email going around on community elists about today's hearing on the DC Public Library issue (also discussed in this blog entry, "Critical Vote on DC Library issues: Your voice crucial. ") And the Express blog points us to a great entry about the history of the MLK library by Rob Goodspeed, "What Will be the Fate of Washington’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library?." The Goodspeed Update entry has great photos of the library during its construction and in its glory days--even at its best it looked like an office building though...

Here's my response to a response to the email. You can read her points between my lines:

Actually, it's often less expensive to renovate than to build new, especially when you take into account that currently produced materials are of lesser quality. Plus, more money is spent on labor, of which wages are spent locally, than on materials, and most of the money spent on materials ends up out of the area.

However, I am torn about this. The current library is execrable. But my problem is that I don't trust the DC Government to build a new building that is any better than what we have. Especially when they are so hyped on getting a starchitect produced building, and frankly, have we forgotten why MLK is so bad as a library:? Because it was designed by a starchitect who believed that buildings were machines, that materials were all, and that there was no room for warmth and love within the buildings.
The Seattle Central Library by Rem Koolhaas is the example bandied about by the Growth Machine for DC. Image from the AIA.

To me, books and knowledge are to be revered, and that can't happen in a building where use is interchangable--it could be an office building more easily than a library. The libraries that I love with great reading rooms and comfortable tables and chairs are nothing that a modernist can probably produce.
Reading Room, The London Library, United Kingdom. That's a place that reveres books and is comfortable besides.

A comfortable chair like this is too often out of place in a modern building. This is in the Second Floor foyer at the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh.

The current proposal is for a smaller facility on an odd footprint, when we need more and better space probably. Despite what people are saying books aren't going away anytime soon. And there is a need for more space for a great auditorium, more computer and classroom facilities, exhibit space, etc. So building a smaller library appears to make little sense.
Image from Audio Astrology.

Again, this is a tough issue because the current library is bad. But I guess I am satisficing in believing that by adding two floors and a complete gut job, it's probably cheaper and we get more space in renovating MLK.

And why not just sell the land over on the Convention Center and use that money for the renovation, instead of the other way around.

Rendering with an added floor, DC Library Renaissance Project. I say add one more floor besides...

Index Keywords: libraries