SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2010

KLMNO

A striking modernist landmark gets a complementary companion

T

hey have done a pretty thorough job of boarding up most views into the

construction site at 10th and G streets NW. But if you walk a half-block north to a narrow side street called G Place, there’s a gap in the fence through which you can see the huge pit that will soon house a new office building, complete with a church space that was designed by the renownedNew York-based architecture firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien.

All this temporarily open space

also serves to reveal a building that has long been hidden in plain sight: the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the 1972 black box designed by the firm of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The building, finished after the death of the great modernist architect, has always been problematic, an austere and alien presence in a city temperamentally allergic to anything that isn’t classical, brick or bland. For years it has been in desperate need of renovation. But for now, seen across the open pit, without the distraction of the church that used to sit next to it, the library looks shockingly good. The construction site offers a temporary gift, a chance to see the library in its full glory, with enough perspective and distance to contemplate its stern geometrical form. Suddenly this glass-and-metal box feels new and powerful, as if all it needed was a little air, a little breathing room. From a distance you can’t see

the layers of encrustation that have diluted the power of Mies’s minimalism. Up close, the library has all the charm of an old bulletin board cluttered with scraps of paper and old staples. It is almost a museum of social signage: green “smoking zone” signs not so far from red “no smoking” signs, chockablock with a yellow “drug free zone” marker. Above the loading dock entrance is stenciled the height limit for trucks, and a blue security camera and security lighting have been affixed to the exterior, with the attendant electrical fittings running like a metal vine along the wall.

PHILIP KENNICOTT

These layers of accumulation, each a small response to a community need, deprive the building of the silence it needs to speak clearly. The rhythm of Mies’s black I-beams, which give the tiers of windows above street level their basic meter, can’t be heard against the low but constant cacophony of competing messages that have been attached to the building.

Obscured views

The clutter continues inside, where the Great Hall, dominated by a large mural of King, also houses a kiosk selling de-accessioned books, a video phone booth, a temporary stage, a tub for recycling cellphones, tables for displaying books, movable art pods that serve as exhibition space, and special shelves for books pertinent (at the moment) to National Bike Month. The glass walls of the library’s southeast corner are filled with posters for library programs and community events, obscuring the views. Giant metal grates prevent people from using the walkways built around the base of the building, and a guardrail has been installed to keep people from tripping where the grade of Ninth Street rises from the ground level of the library. The simple power of the building is fatally marred by all of this, though as you walk through the library with the District’s chief librarian, it’s not clear if the city can afford Mies’s particular brand of beauty. Ginnie Cooper, who has overseen an extensive program of building new libraries, is also making efforts to preserve this, the library’s historic main branch, while making it more accessible to the various communities it serves. She clearly understands the building and how it should work architecturally. In the main

building, may be better than most. Certainly there should be high expectations for the church space, the first Washington project from Williams and Tsien. Tod Williams says they have tried to capture the spirit of a church that serves people who “have not been the primary movers and shakers of Washington” but have raised powerful voices for social justice. A “light box” will signify “the spirit of illumination” and connect the church space to the street. The tower above, primarily the work of Cunningham Quill Architects, will be “largely a quiet structure” that doesn’t “challenge the base or the Mies building.” The new building doesn’t

overtly defer to the older one, nor does it try to compete with its austerity. That doesn’t mean that Williams is ignoring it. But the Mies building is one of those hard, intractable things such as one finds in a modern sculpture gallery. “The Mies building looks great

MICHEL DU CILLE/THE WASHINGTON POST

OVERWHELMED OBJECT: Provisional offices and other layers of accumulation at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library have diluted the minimalist vision of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

atrium, she points to where extraneous curtains have been removed, and to the ceiling, where the library spent $250,000 cleaning, painting and replacing old lighting. “Now look at that beautiful

plane,” she says, pointing to the pattern of glowing fluorescent tubes. “It runs all the way through the Great Hall.” Indeed it does, connecting the reading rooms on both sides to the long central atrium space where a few simple, granite-topped librarian’s desks are vestigial reminders of a time when libraries were all about the physical retrieval of printed information. Cooper says the library is looking for an in-house architect to bring a more coherent, longer-term vision to the building. Among his or her first tasks will be relocating the provisional offices that have been built along the southwest windows of the ground floor, in utter and reckless disregard for the clarity of Mies’s design.

But when asked why she

doesn’t take the posters down, she laughs, and you hear the voice of a librarian, not an aesthete. There’s nothing that clearly marks the building as a library, she says, which is why the posters will remain. Cooper is looking to find a balance between the building’s rigorous architectural demands and its evolving purpose as a library. Only great pots of money can slice through that Gordian knot.

Changes coming

Despite proposals over the years to turn the building into office or retail space, Mies’s vision was symbolically perfect — at the time — for a library. It emphasizes a clear view into a glass box for books, a vision that will remain powerful as long as governments resist transparency and demand the right to keep tabs on what people are reading. The demolition of the adjacent First Congregational United Church of Christ, built in the late

1950s for a congregation that is the oldest integrated flock in the city, has revealed the monumental purity of Mies’s vision. But only temporarily. If you want to see it, get there fast. Already cement is flowing into the gaping pit. The building that will rise, an

office tower constructed over a black-brick base that will house a new church for First Congregational, is a study in the pragmatic, fast-changing world of real estate and development. At first, this was to be a condo development. Then the economy tanked, the first developer sold the project to a new one, the condos were replaced by offices and retail space was added. But the building is going forward, the first commercial development project in the United States by the giant Swedish conglomerate Skanska.

High expectations

The new tower, which will slowly box in the old Mies

in a field,” he says. “But in a city, that beautiful object is in isolation from the beauty of the city.” A few years ago, before the

library received landmark status that will protect it from demolition or radical alteration, it seemed that perhaps no one in the city really understood the old modernist landmark. Now, people do understand it, but that understanding is tinged with a sense of resignation about its virtues. It needs to stand alone, its clean, perfect edges seen against a blank backdrop, not the stylistic heterogeneity of its neighborhood and the historical forces those styles represent. It wants to be timeless in a city that is marching ever forward. The hole at 10th and G streets

offers a little fissure in the city’s timeline, a brief chance to see the building speak with its full rhetorical might. But soon this monument to the old-fashioned book will be a bit like the thing it symbolically celebrated: just another volume on the city’s shelf, old-fashioned, a little lost among its neighbors, yet filled with enormous potential for anyone who bothers to meet it on its own terms.

kennicottp@washpost.com

Engagements | Weddings | Anniversaries

——Engagements——

Lia J.Williams& Sean M. Rozanski

—May 11, 2011—

To place an announcement: email: weddings@washpost.com phone: 202-334-5736 fax: 202-334-7188

——Anniversaries——

Denise Michelle Hyater& Philip Jackson Lindenmuth

—October 10, 2010—

LiaWilliams and Sean Rozanski

Drs. Linda Williams of Montgomery County, Maryland and James Williams of Buffalo, New York announce the engagement of their daughter, Lia Janine Williams to Sean Matthew Rozanski. Sean is the son of Cheryl and Brian Rozanski of Severna Park, Maryland. Lia is a graduate of Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina with a degree in Sociology/ Anthropol- ogy. Sean is a graduate of Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland with a degree in Conflict Resolution.A May 11, 2011 wedding is planned in Silver Spring, Maryland.

TaLea AishaWoodard& Jason Real Cross

—May 2011—

Denise Michelle Hyater and Philip Jackson Lindenmuth, Esq., announced their engagement on December 25, 2009. Denise, a native ofWashington, D.C., is a graduate of Howard Universi- ty and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Relations. She obtained her Master of Arts degree from Trinity University where she studied Com- munity Health Education. Currently, she works in fundraising and resource development for a major non-profit. Philip, a resident of the Washington DC area for over 30 years, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Com- munication from American University and a law degree from George Mason University. Philip serves as a legal counsel for the federal government. The couple plans to wed in the District of Columbia on October 10, 2010.

——Weddings—— Jennifer Marie CoyleMarries

Zachary Errol Pomerantz

—December 31, 2009—

Bookhultz 45th Anniversary

—March 27, 1965—

Jennifer Coyle and Zachary Pomerantz

——Weddings——

Jessica Johnson Marries Jason McDonough

—April 9, 2010—

TaLeaWoodard and Jason Cross

Mr. and Mrs. Gil and Irma Woodard of Germantown, Maryland are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, TaLea Aisha Woodard to Jason Real Cross, son of Rosa Cross of Germantown, Maryland and Alberto Cross of Silver Springs, Maryland.

TaLea is a graduate of Watkins Mill High School, Gaithersburg, Maryland and Florida A&M University in Tal- lahassee, Florida. She works for L- 3 Communications as an Information Security Assistant in Annapolis Junc- tion, Maryland.

Jason is a graduate of Watkins Mill High School, Gaithersburg, Maryland and Savannah State University in Savannah, Georgia. He works for Association of American Medical Col- leges as a Senior Client Technical Analyst inWashington,D.C.

The couple will be married in May 2011 inWashington,D.C.

Jessica Johnson and Jason McDonough

Jessica Johnson and Jason McDo- nough were married before family in Chantilly, Virginia on April 9, 2010.

Jessica is the daughter of Kim Dillard and Robert Johnson of Burke, Virginia. She is a graduate of Coastal Carolina University and is employed by Totel Immersion Software in Arlington, Vir- ginia.

Jason is the son of Kathleen McDo- nough of Springfield, Virginia and the late Robert McDonough. He is a grad- uate of Virginia Tech University and is employed by Cardinal Bank in Tysons Corner, Virginia

The couple familymooned in Kauai, Hawaii and resides in Fairfax, Virginia.

Tip #4:

Book your photographer at least 6 months in advance.

Carroll Thomas Martin and Calvin Martin

My Heart is Yours Always and Forever, Carroll and Calvin Martin May 30th, 2009 Paris, France

——Anniversaries——

Martin 1st Anniversary

—May 30th, 2009—

Jennifer Marie Coyle and Zachary Errol Pomerantz were married on Decem- ber 31, 2009 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia at 7:00 p.m. Cocktails and a dinner reception followed. They were united in mar- riage by Rev. Julian Bermudez. The bride is the daughter of Tom and Cathy Coyle of Alexandria, Virginia. The Groom is the son of Jeff and Donna Pomerantz of Herndon, Vir- ginia. Jennifer is a graduate of George Mason University with a B.S. in Admin- istration of Justice and Zachary is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, with a B.A. in Criminolo- gy and International Studies and holds a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice from The University of Cincinnati. Both are employed by the Department of Justice. Capt. Thomas A. Coyle, USMC, brother of the Bride, was her Man of Honor and Mr. Patrick Eager, friend of the groom, was the Best Man. The couple honeymooned in Ireland.

Mr. and Mrs. Bookhultz

Roger and Linda Bookhultz of Laurel, Maryland and Palm Harbor, Florida were married at Marvin Memorial Methodist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland on March 27, 1965. They moved from the Four Corners area of Silver Spring to Patuxent Glen in Laurel 19 years ago. Within those 45 years, they have been blessed with son Darin, and his daughter, Jalyn and daughter, Christine and her sons, Dalton and Cameron. Their 45 years together is truly a testimony to love, commitment and dedication. Throughout this journey they’ve had highs and lows, ups and downs, sick- ness and health but through it all remained a team always looking for- ward. May these 45 years together just be a stepping off point for a continued love-filled journey down life’s highway. Roger and Linda cele- brated their anniversary by renewing their wedding vows on the deck of their home in Laurel, overlooking Patuxent Greens Country Club and with a fun-filled trip to New Orleans with family and friends.

From their family with love, Darin, Emily, Jalyn, Christine, Ed, Dalton, and Cameron

Emmell 60th Anniversary

—May 27, 1950—

——Anniversaries——

Thorpe 50th Anniversary

—June 4, 1960—

E9

Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe

George John and Margaret Mary "Peggy" Thorpe will celebrate their Golden Anniversary this weekend with many family members and friends from around the country. The Thorpe's were married on June 4th, 1960 in a ceremony at Holy Family Church in Stow, Ohio. They have six sons, five daughter's-in-law and nine grandchildren.

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Mr. and Mrs. Emmell

HAPPY 60TH

WEDDINGANNIVERSARY to

HAPAND RITA EMMELL May 27, 1950 to May 27, 2010

Announce your Engagement,Wedding or Anniversary in The Washington Post’s Sunday Arts & Style Section. (Birthdays, Graduations & other Special Events have moved to Thursdays.) You may provide text and photos. Color is available. Many packages include keepsake plaques of your announcement.

To place an order and for more information, including rates: Contact Alexa McMahon at: weddings@washpost.com Or call 202.334.5736, toll free 877.POST.WED, fax 202.334.7188

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