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I fully agree with Stephanie Mencimer’s enumeration of the Martin Luther King Memorial Library building’s architectural deficiencies (“A Novel Proposal,” 11/5). Whenever I accompany my mother and stepfather to look at exhibits in the basement gallery, I always make sure to follow close on their heels. Otherwise, I feel certain, I would get lost trying to navigate that maze of stairwells and corridors on my own. And has anyone noticed how stale the air tastes on that and other levels of the library?
However, there is one huge design mistake that the essay doesn’t mention. Even supposing that no one had foreseen a time when the physical card catalog cabinets would no longer be needed, why would anyone design them to be a permanent, stationary part of the lobby floor? Didn’t anyone even anticipate that at some point in the future the lobby might need to be rearranged? As they are now, they can’t even be moved, let alone removed, without doing extensive damage to the floor.
Hyattsville, Md.