The Architect's Newspaper January 2021
www.archpaper.com
Washington, D.C., issue
@archpaper
Op-Ed: D.C.’s high-tech style
$3.95
Studio Twenty Seven Architecture talks housing page 16
page 14
A renovation of a Mies-designed public library works through the nuances of the architect’s signature style while improving function and user experience.
The national consensus finds that we are at an inflection point. Will the president-elect make the most of it?
CONCRETE CAPITAL
AMBER N. WILE Y
DC PUBLIC LIBR ARY; MA XINE SCHNITZER PHOTOGR APHER
Brutalism and Black community activism come together in one of the most compelling chapters in D.C.’s architectural history. Read on page 19.
CAMPUS REVIVAL
Howard University eyes development plans while staying true to its roots. Read on page 21.
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At the end of a four-year experiment in governance by dismantlers of a responsible public sector, architectural leaders speak of the incoming administration in tones of relief, hope, and urgency. President-elect Joseph Biden and Vice President–elect Kamala Harris, observers find, face a cluster of crises requiring New Deal–scale activism informed by expertise in fields spanning earth science to complexity theory. The global climate emergency has grown harsher and harder to deny; national infrastructure has crumbled further while Infrastructure Week has become a Beltway punchline; COVID-19 has shortened lives, shuttered businesses, and driven urban gregariousness into hibernation; longfestering social divisions have menaced people as well as democratic processes. Turning crisis into opportunity has rarely been so imperative. Views on what the AEC industries can expect under Biden-Harris leadership range from granular policy recommendations to comprehensive rethinking of systems and values. Concrete priorities include equitable pandemic relief, affordable and sustainable housing construction, nationwide extension of broadband, electrified transportation, and a decarbonized economy. Some frame these measures within aspirational visions of societal renewal and continued on page 8
6 ICYMI 7 Eavesdrop 42 Marketplace
Pushing past Mies
Architects welcome Biden, call for rapid reboot
SETH RYAN / E YEEM, GET T Y IMAGES
Kate Wagner reviews Architecture and Labor page 44
PUBLIC RECORD
Unlike nearly every public building its size in the nation’s capital, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library has an unambiguously local remit. With the recent renovation of its 1972 Mies van der Rohe– designed building, the institution has reaffirmed its dedication to the people who call D.C. home. The project, initially laid out in a 2014 competition entry by Delft, Netherlands–based Mecanoo and further developed in successive iterations, aims to center on the needs of library users. Only those patrons can judge whether the design team succeeded, when the library opens to the public in a postpandemic world. Until then, it is still fair to say that its program, design, and art add up to a strong investment in the potential of residents of the proposed 51st state. The central branch was one of the last projects undertaken by the unelected government that oversaw the District of Columbia from 1873 to 1973. The library, first envisioned in the early 1960s by white business leaders as a downtown revitalization project, opened in 1972 to a city reshaped by activism and unrest. The effects of this change extended to the library itself. The District of Columbia Public Library board voted to dedicate its anchor branch to the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. and decided that a Black director would supervise its operations. Not long after, Congress devolved municipal and state-level functions to the residents of D.C. It was an exciting moment. continued on page 12
Residential Construction FIANDRE AMAZONITE , COURTESY FIANDRE
Case studies and products for home designers. See page 24.
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