Jorge Otero-Pailos, director of GSAPP’s Historic Preservation program, speaks with Francine Houben of Mecanoo in advance of her Spring 2017 lecture at the school. They focus on her firm’s ongoing renovation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC, originally designed by Mies van der Rohe.
“I felt two men on my shoulders. On the left side is Mies and on the right side is Martin Luther King, Jr. … I said Martin Luther King is more important to make the building more open, more welcoming. In a kind of very subtle way, I balanced Mies and Martin Luther King and if it was conflicting, Martin Luther King won.” – Francine Houben
Source by Columbia GSAPP
