The District of Columbia's central public library is an outstanding example of the work of one of the most important architects of the 20th century, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. When the 420,000 square foot black metal and bronze-tinted glass building opened in 1972, it was praised by Wolf von Eckardt, the Washington Post's architecture critic, who declared, "For once in a public building in Washington, there is excellence throughout."

The MLK Library has stood as the only monument to Dr. King in the nation's capital for the past 30 years. It holds special significance to the millions of Washingtonians who have come to the library over the past decades to participate in a wide variety of programs and activities, and is a center of community life in the District.

The library was designed with a flexible interior plan and with the ability to add a fifth story in order to ensure the building could continue to be used as a central library facility for 150 years. It is the world's only Mies designed library, and the only building by one of the 'big three' Modern architects in the nation's capital. It is also, by the estimation of Georgia van der Rohe, the architect's daughter and documentarian, the Mies building that has the most public use of all his creations.

As a result of the District of Columbia's chronic budgetary woes and spending less than a third of the national average on library building maintenance, the MLK Library has suffered significant neglect. Among the signs of neglect are stained and threadbare carpeting, inoperative drinking fountains, an HVAC system unable to provide consistent temperature throughout the building, long-abandoned dumbwaiter and pneumatic tube stations, and obsolete card catalogs built into the floor of the main lobby. Importantly, while much of the library's valuable Mies-designed furniture has been discarded, the building is virtually unchanged in terms of its appearance and plan since it opened. Three spaces on the fourth floor, the director's office, the board room, and the director's reception room, all of which have multiple pieces of original furniture by the architect, best reflect Mies' design esthetic.

Despite a concept plan for an extensive renovation that would cost half as much as a new building, the District government is pursuing plans to replace the current library with a new, smaller building on the site of an old convention center one block to the north. The sale and demolition or inappropriate alteration of the Mies designed building is part of the proposal.

Since the threat to the building was first publicized in 2002, exhibitions, conference presentations, newspaper articles, and television news reports have discussed the building's potential renovation and the threat to its existence if it is abandoned as a library. A landmark nomination is being prepared for both local designation, which does not observe the 50 year rule, and the National Register under Criteria Consideration G, which grants eligibility to properties achieving significance within the past 50 years that are of exceptional importance. However, even this status may not protect the library, since the District of Columbia government has previously demolished National Register landmarks it owned. Only public opposition to the plans to build a new library will ensure the survival of this monument to both Mies and MLK in Washington, DC.

Submitted by Alexander M. Padro, RPPN DC Representative. Photographs courtesy Alexander M. Padro.