I'm No Architecture Critic. Fortunately.

Benjamin Forgey writes about Washington D.C.'s Martin Luther King Library:

Something has gone terribly wrong at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library.

No, it's not the non-working elevators, the outdated dumbwaiter system, the unreliable climate-control system, the windowless offices or any of the other nettlesome stuff that visitors and staff members often complain about.

Rather, it is a fundamental lack of respect for the building on the part of the library's upper echelons and the administration of Mayor Anthony Williams. It would seem that the mayor and his colleagues have no idea what they have here. Or don't care.

This low, black steel building with the immense dark windows is a fine example of the late work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -- or, simply, Mies -- one of the past century's two or three greatest architects....

Forgey's main point is about the library being neglected as the city pushes plans for a brand new one, elsewhere.

I'm not automatically hostile to what used to be called modern architecture, especially these Bauhaus blocks. Like folk music, it's a style that's easy to imitate badly, and Forgey is correct in saying all the second-rate clones littering cities have damaged the real thing.

But I'll tell you, the photo accompanying the story is by far the most attractive view I've ever seen of this building, not far from where I used to work. Up close and personal it's a dingy depressing structure. Forgey has enjoyed writing some of his columns inside of it. I've enjoyed walking away from it.

Renovate it by all means. Unlike soot-covered gothic cathedrals, every molecule of grit needs to be stripped from these boxes before a normal human being can try to appreciate them.