The Library of Congress
Wednesday, 16 April 2008 — 8:01 pm
The national library is one of our underappreciated architectural achievements. Henry Hope Reed put together a handsome tribute to and record of the building. What a shame it is located in Washington, D.C.
What a beautifully lit photograph. Not at all easy in such an interior setting. It is almost pointless to commenr on the architecture — as if I was the second person on this blog to see it!!!
Thanks for this _ although I have used the catalogue on line< i have never been to this building, being in the Antipodes. what a wonderful piece of what we would call Victoriana.
The Jefferson building is really a wonder, inside and out. But, like all public buildings in D.C. of the era, it’s first and foremost a temple in honor of the thing it houses, rather than a proper house for that thing. Really, the foyer of the Jefferson building always makes me wonder “Gee, I wonder if the second act is gonna start soon.”
I prefer my libraries a bit more austere, book-centric, and, well, library-like. These qualities facilitate reading and contemplation. The Jefferson building, rather, is a testament to the Nation’s ascendancy.
But, to God I wish that the LOC had taken a cue from the Jefferson building when they built the Monroe building in 1988-a brown, windowless bunker, soulless and unworthy of its contents.
At least in DC we are not in a habit of destroying our wonderful train stations.