Ginnie Cooper, Washington, D.C.'s chief librarian, was honored with the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture by the American Institute of Architects for her initiative to renovate and rebuild public libraries across the city, DCist reported.
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| D.C.'s Shaw Library Photo: Darrow Montgomery |
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Cooper joined the D.C. Public Library in 2006 as chief librarian and executive director and was charged with transforming the library at a time when its building stock was "in ruins, and scheduled replacements were uninspired," according to the nomination letter by Jonathan Penndorf, president of AIA D.C.
Fourteen library renovations later, and with three more projects in the pipeline, Cooper has "forcibly injected not just the libraries, but the entire city, with the biggest shot of popular Modernism it's ever seen, and likely ever will," wrote Lydia DePillis, Washington City Paper real estate and architecture reporter.