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Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

Mecanoo and OTJ Architects

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Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - Robert Benson
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - Trent Bell
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - Robert Benson
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - Robert Benson

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Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
JURY VOTES
Governmental Interior
5.39
6.47
5.80
6.33
5.99
Atlihan Onat Karacali
Atlihan Onat Karacali Educator at University of Central Lancashire
5
5
6
7
5.75
Ed Ng
Ed Ng Cofounder and Principal at AB Concept
5
7
5
7
6
Nicholas J Hickson
Nicholas J Hickson Founder & Technical Director at THDP
5
5
5
7.1
5.53
Daniel Perlin
Daniel Perlin Founder at Make_Good
5
5
6.1
6.5
5.65
Dan Cheong
Dan Cheong Partner at Buro Ole Scheeren
5
7
5.5
5.5
5.75
Engin Ayaz
Engin Ayaz Cofounder at Atölye
Clean approach to design, with visi...
5
6
6
6
5.75
Vincent Zhang
Vincent Zhang Founder and Design Director at Stylus Studio
5
7
6
6
6
Daniela Viloria García
Daniela Viloria García Senior Lighting Designer at Broadway Malyan
6
7
5.5
6.5
6.25
Anja Pangerl
Anja Pangerl Executive Partner at Blocher Partners
4
6
4
4
4.5
Simon Saint
Simon Saint Principal and Global Residential Sector Leader at Woods Bagot
4.81
6.17
3.95
5.1
5.01
Idmen Liu
Idmen Liu Founder at Matrix Design
5.88
7.17
5.52
5.67
6.06
Moe Krimat
Moe Krimat Strategic Creative Director at SeenDisplay
The transparency, adaptability and...
6
8
7
7
7
Nataly Bolshakova
Nataly Bolshakova Founder and Lead Designer at Bolshakova Interiors
Very clean space, respond to the fu...
7.72
8.21
9.59
7.72
8.31
Alex Whitlow
Alex Whitlow Research and Strategy Director at Quinine
Great example of dedicated and prec...
6
6
6
7.5
6.38
Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
GRAND JURY VOTES
Shortlisted - Governmental Interior of the Year
7.48
8.23
7.37
7.51
7.64
Mark Raggatt
Mark Raggatt Director at ARM Architecture
7.5
8.5
7
7
7.5
Ammar Eloueini
Ammar Eloueini Principal and Founder at AEDS
7.02
8.17
6.88
8.67
7.69
Alexandra Georgescu
Alexandra Georgescu Founding Partner at KOGAA
7.65
8.21
7.93
6.33
7.53
Peter Culley
Peter Culley Founder and Creative Director at Spatial Affairs Bureau
Pertinent and admirable reimagining...
7.74
8.02
7.67
8.02
7.86
Client
District of Columbia Public Library
Floor area
39600 ㎡
Completion
2020
Social Media
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Furniture

The transformation of MLKL brings a new, humanistic environment at all levels, designed and programmed for the future, and it adds facilities including a public roof garden, a theater, signature staircases and a suite of community studios and workshops. 

The library, which opened in 1972, is reborn as a contemporary lifelong-learning hub which reaches out to all communities. It was the only library designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the twentieth century’s greatest architects, and was subsequently named after Dr. King, the towering civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968. The 39,600 m2 rejuvenation project respects the powerful simplicity of the original building. 

The MLKL’s rectangular form has three glazed floors which float above a first (ground) floor recessed behind a colonnade of black steel columns. The main G Street entrance leads into the Great Hall, the lobby. The intervention brings warmth and better acoustics to the lobby, and boosts the library’s social dimension from the moment you enter. A new café is partitioned by glass from the Great Hall, and extends to an outside area on the library’s north-east corner. Brick walls have been cut back so that it is open to the sidewalk, connecting the library with the city.

Mecanoo has introduced two new wood-lined staircases characterized by their sculptural fluidity. Stairs are wide, terrazzo surfaced and curve up around a middle void from the lower ground floor to a new fifth floor, where natural light falls through circular skylights. The staircases exemplify Mecanoo’s organic styling, bring a soft, sweeping rhythm to vertical circulation, and they act as social connectors.

On the third floor, the highlight is the Grand Reading Room. Previously just one floor high, removal of a ceiling now gives it double height, visually connecting into the fourth floor reading room above it. The fourth floor now features a major 291-capacity auditorium. This double-height event space has warm wood-lined walls which curve around the corners, and banked seating which rises into an entirely new fifth floor. The new floor is contained within a trapezoid, glazed pavilion, sheltered by a roof cantilevering out around it. 

Set back from the edges, the pavilion is not visible from the street, from where the building’s profile and geometry look exactly as Mies designed it. Mecanoo’s extensive research included dialogue with Jack Bowman, an architect who worked on the original building, and Charles Cassell, who led the campaigner to name the library ofter Dr. King.