Photo: Robert Benson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAmong the many new additions, there’s a rooftop event space and balcony, a double-height reading room, and a dramatic set of massive staircases\u2014perhaps the perfect Instagram-appropriate backdrop for a day in the nation’s capital. Now is the time to visit the historic structure, and here are five reasons why.<\/p>\n
Reading is just one of the many things to do here<\/h2>\n
In general, libraries are simply huge structures whose sole purpose is to store books. This was certainly the case when the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library opened in the early 1970s. Now, however, reading is just one of the few things visitors can do here, thanks to the new items the architects have installed. There is a conference room and conference center, rooftop event space and terrace, exhibition spaces, a co-working area, a two-story reading room, a children’s room and playground-inspired slide, a caf\u00e9 and patio, a music production creative lab, and a dance studio. The only thing visitors can’t do is book a room and sleep there.<\/p>\n
“The District’s Central Library is a destination for residents, tourists, and anyone looking for a variety of services that may or may not be related to books,” says Richard Reyes Gavilan, executive director of the Capital Public Library (DCPL), which oversees the city’s 26 libraries.<\/p>\n
It’s close to everything – including the best hotels<\/h2>\n
Fortunately, the city is brimming with stunning hotels, including the Dupont Circle, which also underwent an extensive renovation before reopening in October 2020. With interiors by acclaimed designer Martin Brudnzky and Irish pioneer Clodagh, who outfitted the new hotel with nearly 3,000-room penthouse suites Square feet and hallway. The hotel also doubles as a gallery with an impressive art collection that includes the likes of Irish sculptor John Behan and American actor-turned-photographer Dennis Hopper.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The mid-century modernist design movement, which swept the post-war United States between 1945 and 1969, remains one of the most…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/media.architecturaldigest.com\/photos\/61d5e00f862fce7fa5f39219\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/OTJ_MLK_Library_021.jpg\")