Libraries: Setting a new standard for avant-garde urban design?

Part II- Washington D.C. & Montgomery County, MD

This article one part of a multi-segment series titled The Urban Transformation, which takes a look at how certain public institutions and private businesses are adapting to nascent urban environments

Acknowledging the importance of public libraries, a number of local governments across the nation have proceeded with ambitious plans to dramatically modernize their libraries to accommodate, rather than fall victim to, the digital age. One library in San Antonio, Texas has even abandoned books entirely, becoming "all digital." In the DC Metro Area, both the District of Columbia and Montgomery County public library systems have sought to revolutionize their respective libraries with new, architecturally-striking buildings designed to emphasize the "community meeting place" and "digital information access" functions of libraries.

District of Columbia Public Libraries

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, NW Washington D.C.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia

A number of older DC's libraries already have distinct architecture, such as the international-style Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe which serves as the main facility for the District of Columbia Public Libraries (DCPL) system. However, until recently the majority of the system's libraries have the "traditional" bland, boxy, cramped, uninspired, library design  Over the past several years though, 14 of DCPL's 24 libraries have been rebuilt or renovated as part of the library system's ambitious "Library Building Program" with several more renovations, rebuilds, and expansions planned. The program sought to build "21st-century" libraries through community input by conducting community meetings, outreach activities, and focus groups. As a result each library is tailored to its specific surrounding community and no two libraries are the same. 

Libraries: Setting a new standard for avant-garde urban design?

Part I

Seattle Central Library, Seattle, WA
Photo Credit: Wikipedia/Steven Pavlov

This article is one part of a multi-segment series titled The Urban Transformation, which takes a look at how certain public institutions and private businesses are adapting to nascent urban environments

In many cities across the United States some of the most architecturally distinctive and impressive buildings are libraries. In the Mid-Atlantic the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress and the main branch building of the New York Public Library are two of the most iconic buildings and are part of the second and third largest libraries in the world respectively. Both buildings feature neoclassical architecture and were constructed around the same time in the 1890's. In a number of urban communities in the Mid-Atlantic, as well as around the country, there is a growing trend to build architecturally striking libraries, if not quite at the same enormous scale as the grand libraries of the late 19th century.

Libraries as Architectural Icons
The main purpose of libraries has always been to serve as physical (and now virtual) repositories of society's collective knowledge, history, and achievements in all fields from religion to science to culture. Therefore it is fitting that libraries visually reflect the content they contain and provide inspiration to visitors and passers-by.

Montgomery County thinks urban...except when it comes to banks

M&T Bank in Downtown Silver Spring
Image Courtesy of Adam Fagen

This article one part of a multi-segment series titled The Urban Transformation, which takes a look at how certain public institutions and private businesses are adapting to nascent urban environments

Montgomery County, MD probably utilizes more new urbanist, smart growth principles in development planning than pretty much every other jurisdiction in the DC Metro region (outside of Washington D.C. itself), and more so than most suburban counties in the nation. However, while new walkable, transit-oriented urban centers in the county have been rapidly growing over the past decade or so with the construction of new high-density, mixed-use development built along these principles, it seems that one type of business has stubbornly resisted the urban transformation: bank branches.

The typical template for mixed-use development in Montgomery County's urban centers comprises either residential units or commercial office space (relatively rare in these days of high vacancy rates across the Metro area and limited government and business expansion) above ground-floor retail in mid- or high-rise buildings. When I use the term "retail" I'm encompassing a wide range of businesses such as: restaurants, nightclubs, barbers, supermarkets, pharmacies, bars, bank branches, etc. The combination of uses in these mixed-use developments is crucial to creating a true urban environment where residents can live, work, shop, and play, and the streets are active from dawn well into the night.

For some reason, banks (in Montgomery County's urban areas) have shied away from this type of development, while pretty much every other form of "retail" has embraced it. There are a number of new bank branches popping up in the county's urban areas, but many as traditional stand-alone single-story buildings with parking, rather than on the ground-floor of multi-story buildings. Some of these locations are pretty high-profile and on very valuable plots of land.