▲ 马丁·路德·金纪念图书馆
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Photo © Trent Bell

Mecanoo和OTJ Architects改造了华盛顿特区的密斯凡德罗图书馆
Mecanoo and OTJ Architects Transform a Mies van der Rohe Library in Washington, D.C.

由专筑网江鹏，小R编译

华盛顿特区的马丁·路德·金纪念图书馆（Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library）的改造，是20年来该地区26个公共图书馆分馆全面改造的最高成就，著名建筑师大卫·阿贾耶（David Adjaye）、菲尔·弗里隆（Phil Freelon）和Bing Thom为服务设施缺乏的社区设计了新的建筑。但这座由路德维希·密斯·凡德罗（Ludwig Mies van der Rohe）最初设计并于1972年开放的马丁·路德·金纪念馆，是该社区系统的中央图书馆，是市中心一处42.6万平方英尺的现代主义瑰宝，距国家广场（National Mall）仅四个街区，距白宫以东六个街区。翻新这座建筑已经花了很长时间，建筑师寻找改造思路，解决了单窗格玻璃使空间夏热冬冷的问题，以及解决低层礼堂拥挤感的问题。

当荷兰公司Mecanoo和当地合作伙伴OTJ architects于2020年9月设计的改造工程完成时，新冠疫情正肆虐，对该项目的宣传与其说是在庆祝盛大的重新开放，不如说是在承认大楼的再次关闭。访客只能在一层使用电脑和借书卡，设计中的咖啡厅尚未开放，礼堂里回荡着脚步声，周围一片寂静，屋顶花园可以说是图书馆藏书之外的最大资产， 但是却不能进入，里面的植物还在持续生长。

The revitalization of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., is the crowning achievement of the two-decades-long effort to overhaul the district’s 26 public library branches, with notable architects (David Adjaye, Phil Freelon, and Bing Thom) contributing new buildings in underserved neighborhoods. But the MLK Jr. building, originally designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened in 1972, serves as the system’s central library, a 426,000-square-foot Modernist jewel in the heart of downtown, just four blocks north of the National Mall and six blocks east of the White House. Refurbishing the building had been a long time coming: wayfinding was difficult; single-pane glazing made spaces either hot in the summer or cold in the winter; the lower-level auditorium felt cramped.
When the renovation—designed by Dutch firm Mecanoo and local partner OTJ Architects—was completed in September 2020, the Covid pandemic was in full swing and the fanfare for the project was less in the spirit of a grand reopening than simply an acknowledgment that the building was no longer closed. Visitation was limited to ground-level access for computer use and book checkouts; a planned café had yet to open; the auditorium echoed footfalls but was otherwise silent; and the rooftop garden, arguably the library’s biggest asset beyond its collection, was unoccupied and still growing in.


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▲ 大厅保留了它最初的结构(1)，建筑的外观(2)也是如此，但没有那么古板，而是更加活跃。
The Grand Hall (top) retains the bones of its original iteration (1), as does the building’s exterior (2), but is less staid and more active. Photos © Trent Bell, click to enlarge.

三年后，疫情仍在继续，但限制措施减少了很多，图书馆再次以一种温和、舒适的活力开放。现在，底层的咖啡厅开放了，图书馆的游客可以在吧台高的柜台边喝咖啡，旁边是落地窗，可以看到人行道和街道的景色。在较低的一层，是一个多媒体创客空间——Fab lab，从缝纫机到3D打印机都在这里展出。屋顶变成了一个露天的植物繁茂的客厅，很容易成为这座城市里流连忘返的最佳场所之一。

也许这次改造中最重要的设计措施是拆除了原砖石结构的楼梯，以及在图书馆的直线平面内排列着无窗的办公室内部走廊。Mecanoo的设计总监Francine Houben表示：“所有的书架都放在有阳光的地方，所有人都在砖墙后面的房间里。”Houben看到了一个扭转这种关系的机会，他移除了结构上不必要的砖石墙，取而代之的是一个更开放的平面，周围环绕着座椅，从而使更多的阳光进入室内。在外观上，密斯标志性的钢-玻璃幕墙在视觉上与原建筑保持一致，尽管涂了一层新油漆，但他的单窗格玻璃被更节能的LOW-E玻璃取代，这在保护建筑物的同时提高了未来50年的使用能效。

Two years later, the pandemic continues, but far fewer restrictions remain, and the library once again bustles with a gentle, pulsating energy appropriate to its purpose. Now the ground-level café is open, and library visitors can sip at a bar-height counter beside floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the sidewalk and street. On the lower level, a multimedia makerspace—the Fab Lab—thrums with activity, from sewing machines to 3D printers. And the rooftop has become an open-air, vegetated, Wi-Fi-connected living room that is easily one of the best places to linger in the city.
Perhaps the most significant architectural move of the revitalization was the surgical removal of masonry stair cores, as well as interior corridors lined with windowless back-of-house offices within the library’s rectilinear plan. “All the shelving was in space where there was daylight, and all the people were behind brick walls in horrible rooms,” says Francine Houben, creative director of Mecanoo. Houben saw an opportunity to invert that relationship by removing structurally unnecessary masonry walls in favor of a more open plan ringed with perimeter seating, thereby bringing more daylight into the interior. On the exterior, Mies’s trademark steel-and-glass curtain wall remains visually identical to the original, albeit with a fresh coat of paint—but his single-pane glazing has been replaced with more energy-efficient bronzed low-E glass that preserves the architecture while improving its energy performance for the next 50 years of use.


▲ 一个主要的变化是将黑暗的楼梯井改造成带有弯曲栏杆、金色木材及光线充足的垂直交通核。
A  major change is the transformation of dark stairwells into light-filled circulation cores with curving railings and blond wood. Photo © Trent Bell

在一层，新的玻璃现在允许阳光进入宽敞的弯曲楼梯井，取代了以前阴暗的垂直交通核。些楼梯井的内衬是垂直的金色木条，黑色毛毡声学背衬，这种表达呼应了对图书馆一层大厅的介入设计手法。光滑、弯曲的木质扶手由黑漆钢支撑，呼应了密斯标志性的几何外观。建筑原有的东西和重新思考的东西之间的相互作用体现在慎重的材料选择上，例如改变地板颜色来划分新开放的地板中曾经存在的墙壁痕迹。这些颜色的变化与凹陷的海湾灯一致，以前的走廊墙壁与天花板相交。在密斯·凡·德罗的建筑外壳内，内部保留了具有其标志性的许多原始设计，包括家具和照明，但在其他地方也都看到了Mecanoo的设计变化，然而Houben 坚持认为改造升级中对水平和开放的强调仍符合密斯的设计理念。
   
At the ground level, new glazing now admits daylight into generous curved stairwells that replace the former hidden vertical circulation. These stairwells are lined with vertical strips of blond wood with a black felt acoustical backing, an expression that echoes interventions taken within the Great Hall at the ground level of the library. Smooth, curving wooden handrails are supported with black-painted steel in a nod to the visible Miesian exterior geometry. The interplay between what is original to the building and what has been rethought manifests itself with deliberate material choices, such as changes in floor color to demarcate where walls once existed within the newly opened sweeping floorplates. These color shifts align with recessed cove lights where former corridor walls would have met the ceiling. Within the Mies van der Rohe shell, the interior retains many original aspects of its landmarked Great Hall, including furnishings and lighting, but has seen remarkable change at the hands of Mecanoo everywhere else—yet Houben insists that the emphasis on horizontality and openness in the plan hew to Miesian ideals.


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▲ 各种各样的空间都位于旧的Miesian盒子中，包括一楼的咖啡厅(3)和数字公共空间(4)，儿童图书馆(5)和一个连接三层和四层(6)的通高空间。
A variety of spaces reside within the old Miesian box, including a café (3) and digital commons (4) on the ground floor, a children’s library (5), and a new double-height space connecting the third and fourth floors (6). Photos © Trent Bell

马丁·路德·金图书馆包含了各种不同功能的实体空间：一个专门为儿童服务，另一个为视力低下的人服务，还有一个华盛顿的档案馆，以及它的一般收藏区。每个功能空间都有自己的视觉标识，而达到的效果好坏参半。二层的儿童房和青少年阅览室在照明和家具选择上有明确的标识；儿童房还有一个木制滑梯，可以让年轻的顾客从明亮的楼梯交通核中滑下来，在严谨的立面背后增添了一丝奇思妙想。在三楼，Mecanoo设计了一间宽敞的通高阅览室，从四楼凿出一个内部空间，向下面的空间开放；该公司在纽约公共图书馆曼哈顿中部分馆的改造中使用了类似的切割手法。在楼下，Fab Lab延续了混乱可控的主题设计风格，拥有一个充满创造性的车间。Houben说：“因为整座建筑都是密斯风格的，对于Fab实验室，我们决定建一个较低的地下室，在那里我们可以进行所有这些不受密斯风格控制的设计。”

The MLK Library contains a variety of distinct entities: one devoted to children, another serving people with low vision, and an archive of Washingtonia, along with its general collection. Each program gets its own space and its own visual identity, with mixed success. The second-level children’s room and the teen reading room are clearly marked by lighting and furniture choices; the children’s room also boasts a wooden slide that shoots young patrons down one of the bright stair cores, adding a whiff of whimsy behind the rigorous facade. On the third floor, Mecanoo created a grand double-height reading room by carving away an interior bay from the fourth floor to open it to the one below; the firm used a similar structural carve-out in its reconfiguration of the New York Public Library’s Mid-Manhattan Branch. Downstairs, the Fab Lab continues the theme of contained chaos with a workshop full of creative tools. “Because the whole building is so Miesian, for the Fab Labs, we decided to make a lower basement where we have all these kinds of activities not controlled by Mies,” Houben says.


▲ 一个新的屋顶露台已经成为图书馆最受欢迎的地方之一。
A new roof terrace has become one of the most popular places in the library. Photo © Robert Benson

第五层的顶层公寓是出于历史保护的考虑，为了让街道看不见增建的部分，同时保留原有建筑体量的外观，需要进行一些设计调整；Mecanoo在顶层屋顶的悬挑处延续了垂直循环的弯曲风格，周围是茂盛的植物，点缀着桌子、椅子和长凳。Houben称它为屋顶口袋公园，并认为它比以前的构件阁楼有了巨大的改进，因为它还把290个座位的礼堂从地下室搬了出来，有一个通高的空间从四楼连接，倾斜的座位一直上升到顶层，并有一个通过门厅连接花园的出入口。图书馆从地下室到屋顶的所有变化，都展示了Houben对以人为本设计理念的重视，这是21世纪图书馆的一种发展模式：把游客的需求放在首位，同时明智地选择动静分区的区域、严肃和灵动的空间、必要的服务功能和令人愉快的空间设计通过正确的方式进行组合。
  
Historic-preservation considerations shaped the fifth-level penthouse, with setbacks required to keep the addition invisible from the street level and retain the appearance of the original building’s volume; Mecanoo continued the playful curvature of the vertical circulation in the penthouse roof’s overhang, which is surrounded by lush plantings interspersed with tables, chairs, and benches. Houben calls it a rooftop pocket park, and sees it as a dramatic improvement over the former mechanicals penthouse, as it also brings the 290-seat auditorium out of the basement, with a double-height space that starts on the fourth floor and raked seating that ascends to the top level, with an exit through a vestibule to the garden. All of the library’s changes, from basement to rooftop, showcase Houben’s emphasis on people-based programming in what is a model for 21st-century libraries: putting visitor needs first while making savvy choices about the right mix of social and quiet areas, serious and whimsical spaces, and necessary services as well as delightful surprises.







项目信息
建筑设计师：Mecanoo — Gary Martinez合伙人；高级项目经理Steven Jensen；设计总监Francine Houben；项目经理Luuk van Wijlick
建筑师记录：OTJ建筑师事务所
工程师：Collaborative Engineering Group (机电与消防)；CEG and Engenium (管道与消防)；Silman (结构); Wiles Mensch (土木工程)
总承包商：Smoot/ Gilbane III MLK, A Joint Venture; CMAR: Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners
项目顾问：Oehme van Sweden (景观)；EHT Traceries (历史保护)；Wiss, Janney, Elstner (表皮)
客户：华盛顿公共图书馆
项目规模：450000平方英尺
项目总成本：2.11亿美元
竣工时间：2020年9月

材料来源
玻璃：Saint-Gobain
天窗：Wasco
办公家具：Herman Miller
玻璃会议室：MAARS

Credits
Design Architect: Mecanoo — Gary Martinez, partner; Steven Jensen, principal/senior project manager; Francine Houben, creative director; Luuk van Wijlick, project manager
Architect of Record: OTJ Architects
Engineers: Collaborative Engineering Group (m/e/p/fire protection); CEG and Engenium (plumbing/fire protection); Silman (structural); Wiles Mensch (civil)
General Contractor: Smoot/ Gilbane III MLK, A Joint Venture; CMAR: Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners
Consultants: Oehme van Sweden (landscape); EHT Traceries (historic preservation); Wiss, Janney, Elstner (envelope)
Client: D.C. Public Library
Size: 450,000 square feet
Total Project Cost: $211 million
Completion Date: September 2020

Sources
Glass: Saint-Gobain
Skylights: Wasco
Office Furniture: Herman Miller
Glass Conference Rooms: MAARS