A survey by the Shaw Library Dynamo lets residents weigh in on design questions for the new Watha T. Daniel Library being planned >> Here
Here’s my two cents.
Why is there no narrative description (on the DCPL website) to accompany these drawings? It's very hard to take in without some description of the intended purposes and uses, but here goes...
The entrance appears unremarkable and even difficult to find. I liked the suggestion at one of the design meetings that a turret-like structure be incorporated into the entrance design. That would also tie the new library building to the historic context of the Victorian residences found throughout Shaw. It would help make the entrance more prominent – an important design specification according to Chief Cooper.
There is no exterior evidence of a café or other non-traditional draw that might help the library compete with other venues as a community gathering space. Attendees at the Shaw community design meetings have asked for a café. The vending machines Chief Cooper has invoked do not fulfill the promise of a 21st century facility, to my mind.
The predominance of glass in this design should ensure that activities going on inside will be “showcased,” and draw people in, especially after dark. However, the screening on the window exterior seems like it would interfere with the view that all the glass should afford.
The exterior screening looks cheap anyway, and won’t it be hard to maintain? What’s wrong with interior screens that can be raised and lowered as needed? At the Orleans Branch Library in Baltimore (opened in 2007), a double layer of large white mesh screens (of two different densities) can be lowered to shade a wall of windows that receives the “pernicious” western light. The shades seemed sleek and handsome to me.
Aside from the transparency of the glass, there is no interaction with the street. How will the building engage the passerby? This is a very difficult triangular site isolated in the middle of traffic. I don't know how many people walk along each of the different sides of the triangle. My own preference is to walk along R Street because it is less overwhelmed by traffic. The window well on R Street will need a fence around it and to be made pedestrian friendly. Walking beside a deep hole is never pleasant.
Is that shadowy level beneath the green roof a third floor? What is its intended use. Is that an outdoor space under the poles? I would love an outdoor reading room/garden but it has not been previously mentioned.
We know that DCPL has decided not to provide dedicated computer labs, even though libraries throughout the country do. "Flex-space" -- a new term for the old multi-purpose room -- . Flex space requires staff to constantly rearrange furniture. In the past, DCPL librarians have not welcomed that activity and custodians have not been willing to do it. Moreover, people generally prefer purpose-designed spaces. Does anyone else remember how the bookcases at the old Watha T Daniel/Shaw were lined up to create “rooms,” and even had doors attached? You can seen the same thing throughout DCPL today in other flexible space libraries such as West End, Palisades, Capital View, Woodridge, and Southwest.
Given the high cost of land and the projected increase in population due to ongoing area development, it would be ideal to be able to expand. I don't know how many people this building is designed to serve, or in what capacities. Obviously DCPL should build a large enough library to meet current needs and not immediately be outgrown. I feel it is a problem that DCPL has defined the life of the new buildings it is designing as 30 years. We don't know what the future will hold, of course, but most of the library buildings in DCPL's inventory have had to serve a minimum of 50 years, some much longer. It seems likely to me that 30 years is too short.
The new library will be an improvement over the old Watha T.Daniel building, but not because it has any new design ideas. If anything, it repeats the mistakes of the past by fobbing off on us more of the old unworkable “flex-space,” failing to provide dedicated classroom space for computer and other instruction, and providing lip service instead of dynamic community gathering space.
~Robin Diener, Director of the Library Renaissance Project
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