A second branch'the William O. Lockridge/Bellevue Library, also completed by Adjaye Associates for the District of Columbia Public Libraries (DCPL) system 'looks more like a Brutalist treehouse than the glimmering pavilion that is the Francis A. Gregory Library. Set on a steep, hilly site in southwest Washington, the branch was named both for a community activist and the Bellevue neighborhood. The design adheres to the same specifications as the Gregory branch in terms of size (23,000 square feet) and budget ($13 million), as well as the mandate to welcome the moderate-income community through varying programmatic spaces and services.
The tight, 30,000-square-foot site drops in grade about 40 feet, which prompted Adjaye to create a series of podlike structures spilling down the slope. He placed the library's entrance at the lowest point on the north, under large concrete pilotis supporting the building's poured-in-place concrete polygon. Smaller, attached, polygonal steel-frame structures with synthetic stucco surfaces contain more intimately scaled spaces'one for a children's activities room on the second level; two pods for teen services and meeting rooms on the third floor. Their fragmented geometries were meant to give the building a sculptural quality and prevent it from looming monolithically above the mostly brick houses nearby.
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