Photo courtesy DCPL Collection, D.C. Community Archives, Washingtoniana Division, D.C. Public Library
IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME since patrons of the District's central public library have seen the lobby look anything like what you see above. This is a shot taken of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library's lobby shortly after it opened in 1972 at G Street between 9th and 10th streets NW downtown. There aren't any metal detectors, it looks a little bit cleaner and the memorial murals of King, installed in 1986, are no where to be seen. All there is are some card catalog cases and some furniture designed by the building's landmark 20th century architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
With outgoing Mayor Anthony Williams and public library officials wanting to abandon the building in favor of building a new facility planned as a new office, retail and condo development at the old Washington Convention Center site, local blogger Rob Goodspeed (a University of Maryland graduate student, editor of Rethink College Park and a founding editor of DCist along with this writer) has been busy at the library's Washingtoniana historical division, researching the library's history and the building's architectural merit. He posted a detailed history of the library, along with archival photos. The D.C. Council's committee on education, libraries and recreation is scheduled to hold a mark-up session on Williams' proposal to move the library out of the neglected building, which has experienced a host of mechanical, heating and cooling problems over the past three decades.
» "What Will be the Fate of Washington’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library?" [Goodspeed Update]
» NEAR SOUTHEAST: During Friday's "D.C. Politics Hour With Kojo and Jonetta" on WAMU, resident analyst Jonetta Rose Barras gave listeners an excellent example of what not to do when you're being grilled and skewered on air: If you've phoned into a radio show, be careful of the audible breathing. Enter Herb Miller, ticked-off developer, at right, who says the District unnecessarily dropped his plans to develop land adjacent to the National's South Capitol Street ballpark. Barras accused Miller of having shoddy financing (around minute 44), something Miller responded to with answers but also some noticeable frustrated breathing:
Barras: The impression you're just now giving our listeners is that there will be no economic development around the stadium and we know that is an inaccurate impression that you're giving. ...It just goes to show you, even if you have a good defense, Barras' offense can sometimes be too powerful. And heavy breathing only encourages her to drill deeper. [Kojo Nnamdi Show/WAMU]
Miller: [heavy audible breathing]
Barras: The real obstacle to your development is not the sports commission but rather the chief financial officer, Natwar Gandhi, who raised several questions about your financing for this project. And that is what has stalled your activity here. And so the question then becomes: Why are you suggesting that this is all the Sports and Entertainment Commission where in fact it is your failure to answer the concerns that the CFO raised?
Miller: [heavy audible breathing] That is not true! ... [explains] ...
» GEORGETOWN: It's easy to forget that today's ritzy Georgetown was once a less-than-polished industrial neighborhood. As The Post's Yolanda Woodlee reminds us, it was an area were African-Americans concentrated a half-century ago. And one the African-American institutions still around, Mount Zion United Methodist Church on P Street NW, is celebrating its 190th anniversary, which has prompted a reunion among Georgetown's African-American former residents. [WaPo]
» CAPITOL HILL: In Sunday's Outlook section of The Post, architect Allan Greenberg laments the loss of access to the Capitol because of increased security, where with the yet-to-be completed subterranean Capitol Visitor Center, "[w]hat had been an open-air ascent into the domed majesty will become a forced march through an underground bunker." According to Greenberg, the only time Americans will be able to walk up the Capitol steps? When a casket is lying in state in the Rotunda. [WaPo]