Green Libraries for Shaw and Anacostia Neighborhoods

[Guest DC Government Worker]

At its next monthly meeting at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 3, 2008, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) will review concept design plans for the Watha T. Daniel (Shaw) Neighborhood Library and the Anacostia Neighborhood Library. Both projects were submitted by the District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) system and are part of a city-wide transformation that will address facility needs across the system. The plans include demolishing the current libraries and replacing them with new libraries on the existing properties. As proposed, both projects are being designed for the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) silver rating for green building design.

 

The Watha T. Daniel (Shaw) Neighborhood Library is located at 1701 8th Street in Northwest Washington, DC. The site is bound by Rhode Island Avenue, NW, 7th Street, NW, 8th Street, NW, and R Street, NW. The site is located in the Shaw School Urban Renewal Area across from the Shaw/Howard University Metro Station. The new three-story building will have two floors above ground, one floor below grade, and a green roof to accommodate one of the project’s sustainability goals. The building design incorporates channel glass and metal screening and is shaped to reflect the block’s triangular formation.

 

The Commission will also review the plans for the Anacostia Neighborhood Library, located at 1800 Good Hope Road in Southeast Washington, DC. The site slopes downhill from south to north, and is bound by Good Hope Road, SE, 18th Street, SE, U Place, SE and a public alley. The concept design was created to connect the commercial district along Good Hope Road and the residential neighborhoods that surround the site.

 

The new Anacostia Neighborhood Library is a 23,000 square foot, two-story building designed to include a combination of a glass curtain wall, perforated metal panes, and brick. A large roof overhang on the south side of the building is both an architectural element and a solar shade for the glass curtain wall. Inclusion of a bio-retention system to manage stormwater runoff from the building will contribute to the environmental design elements expected to result in a LEED silver rating.

 

This month’s agenda also includes three consent calendar items (no presentation given): preliminary and final site and building plans for new greenhouses and a headhouse at the Suitland Collections Center in Suitland, MD; preliminary and final site plans for a public park on Reservation 174 at the Old Convention Center site in Northwest Washington, DC; and preliminary and final site plans for reopening of 10th and I Streets at the Old Convention Center site in Washington, DC.