Historic MLK Library Gets a Preservation Owners Manual

Just in time for Black History Month, the District's Office of Historic Preservation recently unveiled a detailed roadmap to protecting and preserving every aspect of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial library.

From the Mies-designed Brno and Barcelona furniture, to the silver-leaf signage, to protection of the Detroit Black Graphite exterior paint and the Donald Lloyd Miller King Mural in the Central Lobby, the report spells out what it considers the do's and don'ts for preserving the International Style building. The library was completed in 1972 at a cost of $18 million to replace the Andrew Carnegie Central Library in Mount Vernon Square. It was the only library Mies designed and he did not live to see it completed before his death in 1969. His colleague, John Bowman, supervised much of the construction.

The four-story exposed-steel framed building was designated a historic landmark by the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board in June 2007. And as part of that designation, the D.C. HPRB instructed the D.C. Public Library to come up with a set of guidelines to help preserve its aging flagship.

Not surprisingly, much of the guidelines, drafted by EHT Traceries encourage DCPL to dramatically increase daily maintenance of everything, from the bronze-tinted glass to the beige brick on the exterior. But the key recommendation is to keep the Miesian principles of transparency of the 400,000 square-foot building intact, such as not subdividing the Central Lobby where Miller's King Mural was unveiled in 1986 or the reading rooms into smaller rooms.

"The key is to recapture the openness of the space," said Steve Callcott, deputy preservation officer with the District's Historic Preservation Office, who said the document however was not a roadmap to a full restoration but a way to manage incremental changes to the building now that the District is for the time being committed to keeping the library. "There are a series of challenges but there's nothing that we don't think can be worked out," he said.

The neighborhood around MLK Jr. library has dramatically transformed in the past decade, with the rehabilitation of apartments and art space across the street, to the construction of Class A office space with ground level retail by the likes of Skanska and MRP Realty.

The sprouting of new construction is in stark contrast to the state of the MLK Jr. Library which has endured decades of deferred maintenance and neglect and a reputation as a hangout for downtown D.C. homeless.

While talk continues of a new main library in D.C., and there was some hope that CityCenterDC would include one, it appears that with the new guidelines the aging but iconic MLK Jr. Memorial Library, for better or for worse, will be part of downtown D.C. for some time.

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news.

Local Builder Starts Condo Project in Adams Morgan

A local real estate developer will turn a pair of historic apartment buildings in Adams Morgan into 43 condominiums for delivery next year. Urban Investment Partners (UIP) acquired the properties at 1801 and 1811 Wyoming Street last year for $6.9m and has plans for a $4.5m upgrade expected to complete in late 2011. Washington DC based architect David Haresign of Bonstra Haresign is the lead architect on the project, EHT Traceries is assisting with historic building conformance. The building dates from 1909 and was originally designed by architectural firm Hunter and Bell. The apartment buildings were put up for sale by Marcus & Millichap in early 2009 and went under contract shortly thereafter, but the tenants exercised their rights under DC's Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) and negotiated a contract with UIP in late 2009. UIP Principal Steve Schwat say tenants will be out in about 90 days and expects renovation work to commence immediately thereafter. Schwat says he expects about 16 of the tenants to purchase their units at "deeply discounted prices", but that the building will be extensively rebuilt - "a full gut renovation" - with finishes that rival "an Ian Schrager hotel." 

Finishes will include "extensive landscaping" between the buildings, large patio spaces on the garden level units, and interior finishes like two-tone cabinetry and Cesarstone counters, pocket doors, smart wiring, gas cooking, and a bike storage room. Schwat also has designs for often overlooked roof, including "huge" roofdecks with benches and water. "People will actually want to use them," he notes. UIP has undertaken numerous TOPA re-trades recently, including the Policy in Kalorama, the Shelby in Dupont, and the Macklin in Cleveland Park, all within the past two years. "We haven't done a condominium in a couple of years, I'm excited to start that again" says Schwat. "We love the idea of working with tenants, there's alot of benefit to both parties. Whether tenants exercise their TOPA rights or not we're going to work with them to get a product that benefits everybody...many people are scared of TOPA, but for us its been a great experience." The hardware store on 18th Street will be emptied and fully renovated during the reconstruction.

Washington DC retail and commercial real estate news

Convention Center Marriott Tiptoes Forward

In an inconclusive show-and-tell session before the Historic Preservation Review Board on June 26th, Marriott International, Cooper Carry Architects, and EHT Traceries presented plans for the long-anticipated convention center hotel. During the informational presentation, the development team presented plans for a 1,100 plus room hotel at the corner of 9th Street and Massachusetts Avenue, NW, across from the Washington Convention Center.

The hotel, which will likely achieve LEED Silver Certification for its use of glass and brick, will take up the majority of the block, save the PEPCO power plant that supplies the White House with electricity, and the American Federation of Labor headquarters, a historic building that will remain. The hotel is intended to bring jobs and revenue to the city through traditionally high hotel taxes while serving Convention Center guests.

Norm Jenkins, Senior Vice President with Marriott International said the project was essential to the success of the existing Convention Center which has yet to meet city performance expectations.

"This is a great hotel site, but it's a tight hotel site, and we need to get 1100 plus rooms on the site in order to satisfy the needs of the Convention Center...the city sunk $850 million into this Convention Center several years ago and that project will never be optimized until you have this headquarter hotel," Jenkins said.

Laura Hughes of EHT Traceries raised the issue of the historic American Federation of Labor building on site and explained the history of the building, which was designed in 1915 and designated as historic in the 70's. State Historic Preservation Officer David Maloney cited the building as one of his staff's main points of interest in the project.

"I think the staff does not have any major concerns at all with what's been proposed. I think it's appropriate to expect that the facades of the historic building would be restored to their historic appearance, which I think it anticipated. The treatment of the public space in front of the building is also important...The other thing that's important about the historic building is integrating it with the hotel in a natural way...It's a small building relative to the size of the new hotel, so it's somewhat of a design problem to make it look as if it fits in a continuous streetscape..." Maloney said.

He added that the staff was concerned with how the design relates to the city and Massachusetts Avenue, the over 130 foot height of the project, the building being secondary to the Convention Center and the treatment of public space along Massachusetts Avenue.

"Mass Avenue, as you know, is one of the city's important L'Enfant boulevards. It is historically a residential boulevard really with green space in the front yards. And this building, because of its nature, has very difficult servicing requirements. But their staff, as well as the department of Transportation, have pushed the hotel folks to try their hardest to make sure that there is a sense of continuous green space maintained along Mass Avenue," Maloney said.

While the meeting concluded with accolades from staff members, the board still had questions about the building's width, appearance, and name.

"My last point, slightly in the jocular vein, is why do we use all of these aristocratic French revolutionary terms like marquis and Monaco? Wouldn't it be nice to have a democracy? I mean I'm not saying you name it The Log Splitter, but I mean, maybe the President..., said Chairman Terch Boasberg, to general laughter. The developer will return in the coming months for concept review and permitting.

Steven Siegel from the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development noted the urgency of the project and said the Mayor asks about its status each week. "He asks how the projects going. And every time I tell him the date of delivery, he says that's not soon enough. So we're all working very hard to make sure that this process moves forward smoothly. And, you know, it's obviously important to the success of the Convention Center to make sure that this hotel is delivered as quickly as possible and as soon as possible," he said.

The project is on the HPRB's July "List of Cases Filed for Consideration." A final agenda for the July 24th meeting will be available on July 18th. The Atlanta-based architects are also responsible for Bethesda Row and the National Gateway Hotel Complex in Arlington County.