Last week, the DC Public Library (DCPL) released the first real glimpse of what the made-over Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library might look like. The batch of six renderings illustrates the latest ideas from the architecture team of Dutch firm Mecanoo and D.C.'s own Martinez+Johnson Architecture, but they aren't final: This renovation of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's aging 1972 black steel structure has a long way to go before the project breaks ground.
Speaking over the phone, DCPL's executive director Richard Reyes-Gavilan walked ARCHITECT through what some of these preliminary designs are illustrating. He explains that the team is just starting the schematic design process now. "The ultimate approval from [the National Capital Planning Commission] and the entire regulatory process, we would love to be done with that by this summer, so I would love to have designs done by then," he says. "[T]hree to six months from now would be ideal."
Original article by Sara Johnson at Architect Magazine