Evening star., 1940-01-20
More Efficient
Library Plan
Given Approval
Commissions Actions
Also Moy Save
About 100000
BY RUDOLPH KAUFMAN II.

BY RUDOLPH KAUFMAN II.
It appeared today that general
agreement has been reached on
plans for the new District Free
Public Library building.
Latest plans for the extensible
building which some day is to
house central library facilities, as
well as offices Of the Board Of Edu-
cation, have been approved in the
last two days by the National
Capital Park and Planning Com
mission and the National Commis-
sion Of Fine Arts. In addition,
plans are in accord with the latest
ideas Of DR.. George F. Bowerman,
librarian.
A special meeting of the Public
Library Board with Municipal
Architect Nathan C. Wyeth and
members of his staff working on the
plans is scheduled for Tuesday at
which further details Of the plans
will be considered.
With the general scheme for the
new building approved, more de-
tailed plans can now be prepared,
until working plans drawn up
and the $1.118,000 which the Dis
trict has on hand spent on con-
truction of the first unit.
On Economical Lines.
The latest plan, which differs
materially from that contemplated
q few months ago. is the outgrowth
OF suggestions received by DR..
Bowerman recently at a conclave of
librarians from other cities. It
provides for building simplified in
every respect in the interests of
lowered construction costs and lower
costs for maintenance and admins
tration.
Plans previously submitted and
approved by the Arts and Planning
Commissions were for a building
occupying the entire block between
John Marshall place and Sixth
street NV. and facing Pennsylvania
avenue. Part of this building was
to house Offices of the Board of Edu-
cation, with a central pavilion and
doorway serving the entire building
1t looked like an enlarged edition Of
the Federal Reserve Building and 1t
was estimated that 1t would cost
eventually in the neiRhbOrhood Of
$1,000. 900.
However, when DR.. Bowerman
came to the conclusion that the first
plan would not provide quite as
efncient a library building as an
other type, and when it became ap-
parent that the Ford Building and
old District National Guard Armory
could not be dispensed with for the
present. the first design did not
apply.
Entrance Shifted.
Now the library is to be built to
five stories and occupy about two
thirds Of the block, while the pro-
posed Board Of Education section Of
the building is to be added later at
four stories with its own entrance.
The entrance to the library proper,
now much simplified, will not be in
the middle Of the block, but in the
middle Of the library itself, thereby
lining up with the west unit Of the
proposed municipal center, the east
unit Of which is now being con-
structed.
The Board Of Education addition
will be constructed so that at some
future date it can be thrown into q
library extension If things become
too crowded and new and separate
oflces built for the School Board.
Inside the library, according to
the latest plan, books to be lent to
the general public are to be housed
entirely on the first floor, an inn
possibility in the earlier plan; ref
erence books are to be housed on
the second floor. children's and
schoolbooks on the third floor,
omces on the fourth floor and
mechanical equipment and store
1OOlIlS OIl LIlS ll1L1 1lOOT.
May Save $1,oo0,eo
The latest plan is said reliably
to contemplate q construction cost
Of nearly 100000 less than the
earlier plan and yet provide q more
efncient library.
Set back from the curb 20 feet,
instead Of 26 feet as planned before,
there is possibility that under.
ground parking facilities may be
installed under this border strip.
Another advantage of the latest
plan is that the first unit, which
must be sandwiched between the
Ford Building and the armory, will
have its doorway approximately in
the center of the Pennsylvania
facade. In the earlier plan, the
doorway and central pavilion would
have been at one end of the first
unit and would have created q lop-
sided appearance until the entire
building was built with later ap-
preparations.