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Councilmember Marion Barry, ANC 8D Chair Theresa Jones
and Commissioner Olivia Henderson (8D02) at meeting on
Washington Highlands library, Sep. 24.
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On Oct. 6, the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) postponed until Oct. 27 a decision regarding variances required for a new Washington Highlands library design. This gives applicant and community members time to confer, the BZA said. Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry has written in opposition to the variances. Representatives of ANC 8D, in which the library is situated, 8C and 8E, opposed the variance at the Sep. 1 BZA hearing; one community member appeared in support.
The proposed design, according to DC Public Library, will bring Washington Highlands into the 21st Century, offering separate child, teen and adult areas; the outdoor amphitheater provides community space while reflecting the porches on neighborhood homes, according to the architects. The Library has hired award-winning architecture team of Adjaye & Associates and Weincek Associates to design the new library.
BZA noted at its Sep. 1 hearing that variances are granted for “institutional necessity, not merely the most desired of various options.” DCPL stresses “programmatic necessity” of the three-pod design. Participants in a Sep. 24 meeting said, however, that they never agreed to DCPL's “programmatic needs,” question sectioning by age and wonder why different functions cannot be managed without separate pods. Moreover, that outdoor space will only attract crime, neighbors argue, and the design doesn't reflect any porches they've ever seen.
Visitors will come from all over to see Adjaye's world-class building, Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper says.
“A library is for books and the community and information gathering -- not something to view,” Barry counters.
Ward 8 ANCs Unite
ANC 8D convened a special meeting on Sep. 24, inviting other Ward 8 ANCs, to discuss the design with architects, DCPL staff and Barry. Commissioners and community members from across the ward participated.
DCPL requested two zoning variances in order to complete the new library design. The Library team focused on variance specifics -- fewer parking spaces and smaller-than-code courtyards – arguing their necessity.
ANC 8D Chair Theresa Jones maintained, however, that “the design is driving the need.... Those courtyards don't fill any library need.”
DCPL first brought the design to ANC 8D in June, in conjunction with the variance request. Input on the basic design was never sought from 8D – or from neighboring ANCs, in a ward which has only one full-service library. Therefore, Jones and others argued, the community never had an opportunity for official input on the design itself.
“I have studied David Adjaye's work,” Jones said. “Everything he designed in England was compatible with the neighborhood....We got this because nobody asked us. We want something different, and we want to be involved.”
Several community members noted that other library projects -- Tenleytown, e.g. -- occasioned far more meetings and adjustments in response to community concerns. Some continue to favor renovation of the existing Washington Highlands building using cost-savings for additional mini-libraries. One participant noted that the new Parklands-Turner store-front was built and outfitted for $1 million, for example.
Dionne Brown, a lifelong resident of Ward 8 who also appeared before the BZA, argued in favor of Adjaye's design. A 40-year resident said after the meeting that the new library would be “positive advancement” for the area but that “it would have been different, if the Library came to the ANCs.”
“Ward 8 is library deprived,” Barry said, with 70,000 people and “only 1-1/2 libraries [Washington Highlands and the store-front]....We want a new library, but this community has to be heard and listened to.”
On-going Negotiations
On Oct. 1, Barry reported that he had contacted DCPL as promised. “I asked [Cooper] to join me in asking for a continuance to discuss the design with community, and be more serious about this.”
The councilmember was told, however, that Board of Library Trustees president John Hill had left instructions, before leaving the country, prohibiting a continuance request.
“We want a new library now,” Barry said. “But this has been a great disappointment, with the Board about how they handled the entire process. They did not come the community.”
Cooper said on Oct. 5 that the Library will “wait and see how a variety of things go” before making final design decisions and that meetings with the community are on-going. |
