Usually, we like PSN's Larry Wilson a lot, but he's way off base this time.
Yesterday's column takes issue with the comment that the Altadena Library building "stinks." Wilson says that the Boyd Georgi 1967 building is a triumph of mid-century modernism:
His library is his masterpiece. With its built-ins, sunken reading area and big skylights, it's where the megamaniacal villain would have his headquarters if you were shooting a Bond movie on Christmas Tree Lane.
And that's about the size of it -- it's a villain's lair. It stinks.
Wilson doesn't mention that, it addition to its clean lines and water-stained stucco, it's surrounded by a splintery wooden deck which wasn't part of the original plan. And why the deck? Because it's the only way anyone who isn't in the bloom of health can actually GET INTO THE LIBRARY!
Because the main entrance -- over stairs and a steep staircase -- is inaccessible to anyone who has children in a stroller or who has limited mobility, i.e. walker or wheelchair. If you're unfortunate enough to require a wheeled vehicle to move around in -- well, you don't get to enter from the parking lot. You have to make your way to the street side of the building, traverse the splintery deck and use an elevator to bypass the steep staircase. And let's not talk about how the sunken reading area is basically restricted to those with working legs.
That has always been our problem with modernist architecture. It's not for everybody. Just for adults and/or the healthy.
We once lived in West Pasadena, and there were quite a few modernist houses in our neighborhood. They were quite beautiful, in their spare clean lines, their balconies and bridges and glass walls that thrust them into the hills and creeksides. But we always left thinking, "I can't bring my children here, or our friends who need wheelchairs. It's too dangerous and inaccessible for them."
We have no problems with people's private homes -- they can make them as modernist as they like. We have no problem with differences in aesthetic values. We just knew that that kind of house was not for us, because we enjoy our children and all our friends, including the ones on wheels, and wanted a home that was welcoming for them. Different strokes for different folks, and all that.
But a public building -- like a library -- needs to be for the public. A library is for everyone, not just those who can climb the steep staircase of Dr. Evil.
A personal note: one of our children has a condition that causes progressive mobility problems. A few years hence, do we tell him that he can't go in the library with his friends because it will ruin the aesthetic?
Or to school. Wilson also rhapsodizes about Noyes Elementary, another Georgi work, with its flat roofs and glass walls and pavilioned walkways. Back when Noyes was Noyes, before it became a charter school, it was our neighborhood elementary school -- and one, we and PUSD agreed, that our child could not go to, because it sits on multiple levels.
No, modernist architecture isn't for everybody. But libraries and schools are. They need to be designed accordingly. The Altadena Library falls short, and needs to be radically renovated or replaced.
