Image: And she's buying a stairway ... (wait for it) ... to heaven. Courtesy of Lukmire and Associates.
Architects have bounced a few ideas around as to how people will reach the new library’s third-floor entrance: through a footbridge, up an escalator, via elevator only, whatever.
Now they’ve come up with this idea: a staircase that hangs along the building’s exterior. If built, the staircase will serve the library’s Fenton Street entrance and will be exposed to the elements, architects with Lukmire and Associates described at a public meeting earlier this month.
An elevator along Fenton Street would still be available to lift library patrons to the third floor if this option is chosen, the architects said.
And right now, the chances of this design going over with residents is zero, based on critiques offered by those in attendance. Jon Lourie, an architect and member of Silver Spring’s urban-district advisory committee, gave the plan an emphatic thumbs down, calling the idea straight-up “dumb”.
Image: View from Fenton and Bonifant Streets. Courtesy of Lukmire and Associates
Lynn Hughes, another area resident, worried that such an entrance would be a major turnoff. In all likelihood, library visitors would instead use escalators or elevators along the building’s Wayne Avenue side, or enter the building through the proposed footbridge from the Wayne Avenue garage, she suggested.
And with all the foot traffic diverted to Wayne, Fenton Village can just kiss economic revitalization buh-bye. The exterior staircase “is counter to what we’re trying to do in Fenton Village,” Hughes said.
Others grumbled that the staircase looked like a fire escape and was an unwelcoming sight. “Give us the dignity of a proper entrance,” resident Kathlin Smith demanded.
Public forums on the future library’s design have wrapped for the summer. Now architects will deliver their drawings to MoCo exec Ike Leggett to see what he likes and doesn’t like. Another public meeting on the design will be held after the summer.
As for the proposed footbridge between the library and the Wayne Avenue garage, that proposal goes to the county council’s economic development and human services committees Tuesday afternoon.
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People have a tendency to sit on stairs. People even sit on the small, narrow to Safeway from the Thayer Ave. ped entrance. I’ave also encountered people who sit on stairs at Metro stops. The proposed stairs for the library would probably attract sitters, big-time. So they would be almost unusuable.
Remember when they let Homer Simpson design a car?
Good god! That looks like a lot of steps to walk up to get to an entrance. I’m not old (yet) and I don’t think that that many steps are particularly welcoming, which is what you’d like in a library.
I agree with Wyrm… I’m a big-time walker, but that just looks unfriendly. Gives me kind of a Sisyphus vibe…
I want stairs and a Fenton entrance – just yeesh these look daunting — look at the scale of the humans walking by them – note they did not picture anyone ON them
LuvMyHod is right that folks clog existing stairs all over SS
I like the wide, tiered plaza-like stair entrance at Long Branch as comparison of a more gradual entrance with plenty of sharing/open spaces
Those stairs look like a good way to dispose of a possessed priest.
While I would have preferred classic architecture similar to the NY Public Library, I’ll settle for internal stairs.
The only reason the entrance is on the 3rd floor of the building is because a train is going to run through the middle of the first floor of the building. Does this strike anyone as being an absolutely ridiculous concept or am I just being old fashioned?
Given the height of the ceiling in the Purple Line station area and the next floor, you know that has to be a four story staircase in residential terms, let’s say close to 40 feet. That hike will give a lot of potential readers second thoughts.
How about the Purple Line going *over* the library, like an amusement park ride. And the pedestrian bridge could be an adventuresome rope bridge made of hemp, like from Indiana Jones. We may not have gotten our Ghermezian Wave Pool, but it isn’t too late!!
P.S. Why do these architect pictures never show the automobile traffic jams that will surround this library (and actually already do, even though it hasn’t been built yet).
Wow. The dumb ideas just keep coming. It’s bad enough having the Purple line on the street rather than in a tunnel where the trains and the auto/truck traffic won’t get jammed up even worse than the current traffic is already. Putting the Purple Line through the library site is even worse. But they seem to have reached a new height of questionable judgment if they think people will actually use a 3 to 4 story high exterior stairway to get to the library. And just wait for the lawsuit the first time they don’t shovel the snow off it and somebody falls. The damage award would undoubtedly be more than it would cost to build the bridge and a decent dedicated interior entrance for the library.
There is plenty of room to add on to the old library. It has style as well. I know it too late but it sure would have been a lot cheaper when the county is looking for cost savings. The site is only a couple of blocks away.
Tim is right.
Agree with Tim. Old site better and cheaper. The proponents of the new site keep pointing out how dangerous the intersection is @Wayne and Fenton. Not only is the County spending millions on the purchase of the land and construction of the library and adjacent housing but now we have to spend hundreds of thousands more to “make the intersection safe” so that people can safely get to the library.
Meanwhile County still owns the old site and doesn’t know what it is doing with it. MoCo still doesn’t get that they don’t have the money they once had.
Editor’s note: This poster’s screen name was modified to avoid confusion. — JD (Jul 23, 2009)
Won’t all those windows be bad for the books? Fading and whatnot?