Project: Grosse Pointe Central Library, expansion and renovationGrosse Pointe, MIArchitect: Marcel Breuer, 1953. The community of Grosse Pointe, Michigan has a cultural treasure that is in danger of being demolished - the Central Library, designed by noted architect and educator Marcel Breuer. Such stories are becoming commonplace across the country. Modern architectural gems are slowly disappearing despite the protests of those who recognize their value as part of our shared twentieth century artistic and cultural heritage. But there is a chance to save this local landmark from demolition! The Modern Architecture Protection Agency (MAPA) was organized by a group of concerned Archinect members with the express purpose of demonstrating that design ingenuity can lead to solutions that accommodate contemporary needs while respecting modern landmarks. To this end, we have organized a Design Charrette that will show the Grosse Pointe Library’s Board of Directors that imaginative solutions can solve their programmatic needs while saving the Breuer-designed facility from demolition. “…the library board plans to demolish the Grosse Pointe Central Library and replace it with a newer, bigger structure, despite efforts by some to save the original.The dispute is unusual on several fronts. Unlike most endangered landmarks, the Central Library isn't a neoclassical or Romanesque edifice from the 1800s, but a modernist work built in 1953.”
Phase IBy adding a glass space on top of the existing library and extending to the south as the program requires emphasizes the importance of the existing rather than the new.
