Plans Dashed for New DCPL Central Site

Plans for a new central library for the District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) have been dashed, at least at the site of the city's old convention center, which now will host a hotel and retail complex. While former mayor Anthony Williams targeted the convention center location, now a parking lot, for a mixed-use development including a $275 million library, his successor, Adrian Fenty, was cool to the idea and stressed the importance of renovating the branches.

A new central library remains in question. Preservationists and some people associated with the DC Library Renaissance Project would like to renovate the current Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; library officials supported the convention center plan, believing that only a new building could leverage private funding. (See “Cooper's Challenge”) John Hill, president of the library board, told the Post that DCPL might offer customer service at the Carnegie Library nearby and move administrative functions to offices across the Anacostia River east of downtown.