Public Libraries: D.C. Mayor Proposes $100 Million Overhaul of Central Library

From The Washington Post:

Mayor Vincent C. Gray is proposing to spend more than $100 million in the coming years to remake the District’s four-decade-old central library, moving forward with a project that two previous mayors pondered but ultimately did not pursue.

Renovating the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, located downtown at 9th and G streets NW, would complete a $225 million transformation of the city’s public libraries and make good on longstanding promises to revitalize the aging steel-and-glass building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Gray unveiled the plans as part of his fiscal 2014 budget proposal, which he presented to D.C. Council members Thursday morning.

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Besides the central library spending, Gray also proposed more than $40 million to renovate or rebuild the system’s branches in Cleveland Park, Palisades and Woodridge. His proposal also would restore seven-day-a-week operations at all city libraries for the first time since 2009, when a budget crunch led to Sunday closings and abbreviated hours at neighborhood branches.

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See Also: District Weighs Proposals for Renovating MLK Library While Preserving Historic Status (via via Washington Post; September 19, 2012)

See Also: A New Look for the MLK Library (Proposed Designs)

See Also: The Washington Post Interviews Ginnie Cooper, Chief Librarian at the DC Public Library (March 21, 2013)