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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPreservationists say Library of Congress makeover plan is 'vandalism'
A proposed change to the ornate Main Reading Room at the Library of Congress that critics say would remove the symbolic and functional heart of the 1897 Beaux-Arts masterpiece has landed the library on the D.C. Preservation Leagues 2022 list of Most Endangered Places.
The Library of Congress plans to remove the mahogany librarians desk that rises some 16 feet in the middle of this spectacular, first-floor room and replace it with a circular window in the floor that will offer a view of its decorative dome to visitors looking up from the floor below.
When the D.C. Preservation League announced the listing last month, it described the alternation as ill-advised and unnecessary and said it would desecrate the Reading Rooms character and function. It asked Congress and the Architect of the Capitol, the federal agency responsible for the Capitol complex, to stop it.
The leagues listing is the most recent and public criticism of the proposal, which was unveiled more than three years ago. It follows a retired librarians complaint submitted to the Library of Congress inspector general in April and expressions of outrage from arts and civic leaders.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/preservationists-say-library-of-congress-makeover-plan-is-vandalism/ar-AAZHcKN
sybylla
(8,528 posts)I strongly support these objections to changing anything about it that is necessitated by structural/repair issues.
sinkingfeeling
(51,482 posts)ARPad95
(1,671 posts)decorative dome. Whose whack-a-doodle idea is this anyway?
Kid Berwyn
(14,992 posts)Look up.