DC Public Library Releases More Renderings of the MLK Library Renovation

It has been over a year and a half since DC Public Library (DCPL) selected a team to renovate the system’s 43-year-old central library. DCPL has been steadily releasing images of the redesign by Dutch firm Mecanoo and D.C.’s own Martinez+Johnson Architecture, and the questions about the unillustrated spaces are gradually being answered. On Wednesday, DCPL released another batch of renderings of the renovated black steel and glass Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, which was originally designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened in 1972. These latest renderings show revisions of spaces we’ve already seen: the main entrance vestibule, the first-floor performance space, the café, the staircases, the children’s room, the fabrication lab, and the auditorium. But there are also renderings of spaces not yet illustrated: a below-grade creative audio visual space, a remaking of the Digital Commons, a teen area, the Center for Accessibility, space for community alliances, a double-height Grand Reading Room, and special collections.