Architecture studios Mecanoo and OTJ Architects have added a rooftop garden and statement staircases to the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library in Washington DC as part of its renovation of the Mies van der Rohe-designed building.
Dutch architecture office Mecanoo collaborated with New Orleans studio OTJ Architects for the project, which involved a three-year-long renovation of the library that is named after the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Mecanoo and OTJ Architects have renovated the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library
The rectilinear black glass and steel building was the last building designed by renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe before his death and his only library.
According to Mecanoo and OTJ Architects, the renovation intended to balance preserving the original building, which opened in 1972, with creating more open, active spaces. A 1968 painted mural was preserved in the Great Hall
"Mies designed a passive library to sit and read in, but the reborn library is designed to be active, a place for doing and meeting," said the studios.
"It now embodies the spirit of advancement, inclusivity and hope that Dr King brought to the nation. The introduction of organic surfaces and softer lines is a strong contrast to Mies' strict hard-surfaced rectilinearity, but it creates synergy, not opposition, with the original building."

The photography is by Trent Bell unless otherwise stated.
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