Read 'Em and Weep
The MLK Library's main constituents are elevator contractors, an embattled director, and mosquitoes. No wonder the mayor expects little resistance to moving it up the street.
Cover Story
When Stuart Gosswein gazes at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, he isn't looking at a building full of books. He's witnessing a work of art.
Every day on his way to work, Gosswein walks by the sleek black box of a building, which for three decades has served as the central branch of the District's public library system. Every day, he admires the rationality of its right angles, the perfection of its proportions, and the logic of its transparent design.
"Even though it's a cold building," says Gosswein, "it manages to be warm and inviting."
On a balmy Wednesday morning in early April, Gosswein stands in front of the library on G Street NW in downtown D.C. and rhapsodizes about its external features. From the scale of the flagpole to the originality of the granite sidewalk to the luminescence of the windows, no bit of aesthetic mastery escapes Gosswein's attention.
Gosswein, a painter, sculptor, and co-founder of the Downtown Artists Coalition, is dressed for the occasion: black jacket, black jeans, black shoes with black laces. "It's a little warm for this jacket," says Gosswein. "But at least I match the building."
The library opened in 1972, replacing the old Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square, and was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the wunderkind modernist architect who happens to be Gosswein's favorite. Gosswein grew up in Chicago, which is also home to the majority of Mies' work in America. When Gosswein moved to the District 25 years ago, he was pleased to find a reminder of his hometown lurking on G Street, just around the corner from his art studio. It is the only Mies building in all of D.C. ... Continued 
Issue of Apr. 18 - 24, 2003
News and Features
- Read 'Em and Weep
Cover Story - Trailer Park Suite
The City - Fight to the Finish
The City - The Hogs of War
The City - The Dustbin of History
The City - A Gust of Air
The City - Bringing Down the House
The Mail - Almost Famous
The Mail - Boom and Busted
The Mail - Get Back to Grass, Roots
The Mail - Correction
Correction
Columns
- Bullets Fever
Cheap Seats - Footloose
Dept. of Media - Parking Reformation
City Desk - Off the Map
City Desk - Adding It Up
Loose Lips
Eats
Movies
- Grand Theme Auto
Film Review - The Joke Implosion
Talking Pictures - Good and Folked-Up
Film Review - Better Luck Tomorrow
Film Review - Bulletproof Monk
Film Review - Holes
Film Review
Music
- Youth Before Beauty
Music Review - Bob Hopes
Music Review - Burn, Piano Island, Burn
Music Review - Us
Music Review - Gone Fishin'
Music Review - Can't Buy a Thrill
Music Review - ABC Music: Radio 1 Sessions
Music Review - Out of the Cool
Music Review - The Hits
Music Review - Four More Songs by Grab Grab the Haddock
Music Review - Peter Pan
Music Review
Theater
- Family Stories: A Slapstick Tragedy
Theater Review - Speaking in Tongues
Theater Review - Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Theater Review
Arts and Events
- Dead Man Working
Books - Conflict of Interest
Arts - Cheap Shots
Artifacts - The New College Try
Artifacts
City Lights
This week's best in Arts and Entertainment.
- The King Cobra
City Lights - Ute Lemper
City Lights - Iain Levison
City Lights - Bodies of Light-Temples of Stone
City Lights - Creative Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop
City Lights - Provincial Dances Theatre
City Lights - The Good Thief
City Lights - Yo La Tengo
City Lights - The Dawn Patrol
City Lights - James Foley
City Lights - Jail Breakers
City Lights - A Robert Burns Supper: A Gastro-Literary Affair
City Lights - The Essex Green
City Lights - Cross of Iron
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