Darrel Rippeteau on the Martin Luther King Jr. Library

Darrel Rippeteau of Rippeteau Architects on 14th St. recently shared with me an idea he developed for breathing new life into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library building at 9^th and G Streets. Below you will find his sketches as well as a description of his philosophy.... take a look it is quite interesting.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Library is a powerful landmark of the modern era which should be preserved and used as an important destination building in the Nation’s Capital for as long as it can be maintained and preserved. It can serve as a library, or as an office building, or embassy, or school, without changing the exterior which is visible from the sidewalks all around.

However, MLK is not an overly friendly and comforting structure. It must be made more livable and lovable for the thousands who should be able to work and visit over the decades and centuries to come. It harbors a deep dark airless interior suitable for machines or files, but not humans. It has no natural ventilation via its vast windows, yet the sun beats in upon people.

The accompanying sketch suggests how the sepulchral interior can be carved out and made over into a light-filled cortile like those at the Old Post Office, the International Monetary fund, and the new glassed-over courtyard at the Museum of American Art.

The cortile would penetrate through the roof all the way down to the ground floor, flooding the remotest parts of the interior with light, and making prime office and gathering spaces possible around its vortex-like sides. Within the cortile a monumental spiral staircase will connect each floor with the next and on up to the roof, where persons will alight upon the concourse bridge spanning the broad opening under the sloping glass rain water collector. The concourse will lead out onto the roof terrace along the east-west axis of the building, flanked by productive gardens, terminating in two terraces which view upon Washington architectural landmarks the Woodies Building to the west and the Museum of American Art to the east. These terraces would be connected again by a garden path, providing the roundabout circulation system so conducive to complex human interactions which make our lives meaningful and amusing (not to mention power networking rooftop soirees in schmooze-mad Washington). None of these changes would be visible from the sidewalks surrounding the site, so the original Mies concept would forever loom in frozen time, as at its creation.

Let’s address the enervating lack of air and the oppressive exposure to too much sun which occurs around the east and south elevations (and somewhat along the west elevation where a new neighbor is hamstrung in its foundations). The overhanging soffit above the deep perimeter arcades make possible new vertical ventilation and cooling systems rising three stories through the perimeter rooms and terminating in roof-top vents not unlike those on the deck of a ship. Each of these vertical ducts would harbor fresh air intakes, stale air exhausters, and booster coolers for the periods when low hot sun impacts the exposed faces of the building out of proportion to the remaining spaces inside. Coupled with a sensible central heating and cooling machine system and overnight radiant cooling, fed through the structure via room-temperature water pipes, such a perimeter ventilation/cooling system can make MLK a comfort champion. Again, nothing would be visible above the existing roof line from the surrounding sidewalks.

Perhaps the Martin Luther King, Jr. building is a sort of overbearing tough guy in our gentile city. But it is a true landmark in a style of architectural revolution and it deserves preservation. That does not have to mean restoration of every shortcoming or lack of amenity. Here is a landmark chance to prove the value of adaptive re-use through the application of amenities, technologies and alterations we can imagine now.