Page 28 - Summer_2019

ArchDC Summer 2019.qxp_Spring 2019 5/22/19 2:57 PM Page 26

The façade along Macomb Street is articulated as a series
of smaller components, helping the library blend into
the residential scale of adjacent blocks.

rounded corner of the commercial building at the southeast frames, together with pendant lights and the bottom
corner of Connecticut Avenue and Ordway Street. Viewed edge of second-floor study rooms that are cantilevered
from the north, the library’s rounded corner suggests a into the space, create the suggestion of a secondary, lower
Claes Oldenburg-scaled hinge, highlighting how the ceiling in the space.
building’s plan swivels at that point away from the The first floor’s other primary spaces are the large
diagonal of Connecticut Avenue and into alignment meeting room near the entry, the children’s reading room
with the residential grid. (called the Children’s Collection), an additional room
Long outdoor balconies on the building’s north and accessible from that reading room that can be used for
south sides echo the front porches of the houses behind the story time or meetings, and the building’s main stair hall.
library. Readers using the balconies activate the outside A support column in the Children’s Collection was
of the building and advertise the library’s activity to fashioned into a tree-shaped book bin and seating area.
passersby. The balconies are accessed from the second- Children and parents in the room have direct access to a
floor main reading room, whose cross-section is about secure outdoor space along Newark Street.
equal in size to a typical house in the neighborhood. The main stair hall is located where the building
For a building with a lot of masonry on the outside, turns the corner from Connecticut Avenue to Macomb
the interior is surprisingly light-filled. Just beyond the Street. Large expanses of glass on both sides of the corner
building’s entry is a large, lofted front room that PEDC flood the space with light. A reading area tucked into the
calls the Forum. The space’s height reinforces the façade’s corner on the first level features a wooden desktop that
message of civic grandeur. Wooden frames at the windows playfully steps down in height as it follows the descent of
help articulate the space, creating intimately scaled reading the stairway. The stair’s two lowest steps are turned toward
nooks with views out to the street. The tops of the wooden the building’s entry area, so that the stair addresses that

26 THE (QUIET) LIFE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD