Friday, June 13, 2008

Updated Library Design

Last night's meeting was interesting -- mostly because the Freelon Group (architects) had updated renderings, with a few new design elements included. Most notably is a giant "A" in the vertical portion of the facade, as well as a new green color scheme. Not sure I dig the bright green, as it seems a little glaring for a reading environment, but I like how striking it appears. Hopefully it won't get too value engineered.

Looking up Good Hope Road:


Looking Down Good Hope Road:


What it looks like now:

Are they planning to underground the utility lines? I certainly hope so, and the renderings assume as much.

The architects have already won a 2008 Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects for the design, in the "unbuilt" category. I'm looking forward to seeing this thing come out of the ground. But, as with any uber-modern design (is it really, or does it look like it was built in the 1960s.. can't tell), I can only hope that it won't be irrelevant in five or ten years. To really last, buildings must be designed to be loved for a long time.

photos by DG-rad

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It already looks dated. Blech. I don't know how they could win an award with that design for anything other than "Most likely to look outdated 3 seconds after completion."

Anonymous said...

I really like it! Including the green. It looks modern and light and totally different than what is already in the neighborhood - hopefully the quality if not the style will be reflected in future additions

Anonymous said...

Outdated and loud. Why the Giant A?

David Garber said...

A for Anacostia ...but since this library is technically in the Fairlawn neighborhood, I wonder about calling it the Anacostia neighborhood library