National Building Museum
Encyclopedia
The National Builders Museum, in Washington, D.C.
, United States
, is a museum
of "architecture
, design
, engineering
, construction
, and urban planning
". It was created by an act of Congress
in 1980, and is a private non-profit institution
; it is adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
and the Judiciary Square
Metro
station.
The museum hosts various temporary exhibits in galleries around the spacious Great Hall. Past exhibitions have highlighted innovation in parking garages; green building
and sustainable design
; architects, including Eero Saarinen
and Marcel Breuer
; and tools as art. Currently on view are exhibitions on the World's Fairs of the 1930s, 15 iconic buildings including the Empire State Building
and Frank Lloyd Wright's
Fallingwater
made entirely of LEGO
bricks, and a retrospective on American Art Deco
artist Hildreth Meiere
.
Visitors from around the world come for exhibitions, public programs, family festivals, and tours to gain insight into the history and future of the world we create for ourselves. The Museum's lecture series such as Spotlight on Design and For the Greener Good welcome the architects and designers from around the world to discuss their work. Youth education programs such as CityVision and Design Apprenticeship Program and a variety of school programs introduce kids and teachers to design education as a hands-on way of enhancing math, science, and art skills simultaneously.
The National Building Museum Shop has been recognized in local and national media as the “best museum shop.” The Museum Shop sells books about the built environment and an array of housewares, educational toys, watches, and items for an office, all with an emphasis on design. The National Building Museum Shop was honored in 2007 as the “Best Museum Store” in the country by Niche magazine, "Best All-Around Museum Shop" in the region by the The Washington Post, a “Top Shop” by the Washingtonian, and named best museum shop in DC by National Geographic Traveler's blog, Intelligent Travel in July 2009. In 2010, the Huffington Post included the National Building Museum in a story, "Museums with Amazing Gift Shops."
building, a brick structure completed in 1887 and designed by Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs
, the U.S. Army
quartermaster general
, which is notable for several architectural features, including the spectacular interior columns and a frieze
, sculpted by Caspar Buberl
, stretching around the exterior of the building and depicting Civil War
soldiers in scenes somewhat reminiscent of those on Trajan's Column
as well as the Horsemen Frieze of the Parthenon
. The vast interior, measuring 316 × 116 feet (96 × 35 m), has been used to hold inauguration
balls; a Presidential Seal
is set into the floor near the south entrance.
After the Civil War, the United States Congress passed legislation that greatly extended the scope of pension coverage for veterans and for their survivors and dependents, notably their widows and orphans. This ballooned to over 1,500 the number of staff needed to implement and administer the new benefits system, and quickly required a new building from which to run it all. Meigs was chosen to design and construct the new building. He departed from the established Greco-Roman models that had been the basis of government buildings in Washington, D.C., until then and which continued after the Pension Building's completion. Meigs based his design on Italian Renaissance precedents, notably Rome
's Palazzo Farnese
and the Palazzo della Cancelleria
.
Included in his design was a frieze sculpted by Caspar Buberl
. Because a sculpture of that size was well out of Meigs's budget, he had Buberl create 28 different scenes, totaling 69 feet (21 m) in length, which were then mixed and slightly modified to create the continuous 1,200-foot (365-m) parade of over 1,300 figures. Because of the 28 sections' modification and mixture, it is only in careful examination that the frieze is seen to be the same figures repeated several times. The sculpture includes infantry, navy, artillery, cavalry, and medical components, as well as a good deal of the supply and quartermaster functions, for it was in that capacity that Meigs had served during the Civil War.
Meigs's correspondence with Buberl reveals that Meigs insisted that a black teamster, who "must be a negro, a plantation slave, freed by war", be included in the quartermaster panel. This figure was ultimately to assume a central position, over the building's west entrance.
Built before modern artificial ventilation, the building was designed to maximize air circulation: all offices not only had exterior windows, but also opened onto the court, which was designed to admit cool air at ground level and exhaust hot air at the roof. Made of brick and tile, the stairs were designed for the limitations of disabled and aging veterans, having a gradual ascent with low steps. In addition, each step slanted slightly from back to front to allow easy drainage: a flight could be washed easily by pouring water from the top.
When Philip Sheridan
was asked to comment on the building, his biting reply echoed the negative sentiment of much of the Washington establishment of the day: "Too bad the damn thing is fireproof." A similar quote is also attributed to William Tecumseh Sherman
, perhaps casting doubt on the truth of the Sheridan tale.
The completed building, sometimes called "Meigs Old Red Barn," required more than 15,000,000 bricks, which, according to the wit of the day, were each counted by the parsimonious Meigs.
The building was used for federal government offices until the 1960s when it had fallen into a state of disrepair and was considered for demolition. After pressure from conservationists, the government commissioned a report by architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith
of possible other uses for the building. Her 1967 report suggested a museum dedicated to the building arts. The building was then listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1969. In 1980, Congress created the National Building Museum as a private, non-profit institution. The building itself was formally renamed the National Building Museum in 1997.
Every year, the annual Christmas in Washington
program is filmed at the museum, with the President and First Lady.
On June 7, 2008, Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign for the Democratic
presidential
nomination with a farewell rally at the museum.
for individuals and organizations who have made important contributions to the U.S.'s building heritage; the Vincent Scully Prize
, which honors exemplary practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture, historic preservation, and urban design; and the Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology
, which recognizes outstanding leadership and innovation in the field of construction methods and processes.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, is a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
of "architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
, engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
, and urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
". It was created by an act of Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
in 1980, and is a private non-profit institution
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
; it is adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., at Judiciary Square, honors the nearly 19,000 U.S. law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty throughout history. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund was established by former U.S...
and the Judiciary Square
Judiciary Square (Washington Metro)
Judiciary Square is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C. on the Red Line.Judiciary Square is located in Northwest, with entrances at 4th and D Street and 5th and F Street. It serves the many courthouses and municipal buildings in the area...
Metro
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
station.
The museum hosts various temporary exhibits in galleries around the spacious Great Hall. Past exhibitions have highlighted innovation in parking garages; green building
Green building
Green building refers to a structure and using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition...
and sustainable design
Sustainable design
Sustainable design is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability.-Intentions:The intention of sustainable design is to "eliminate negative environmental...
; architects, including Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
and Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
; and tools as art. Currently on view are exhibitions on the World's Fairs of the 1930s, 15 iconic buildings including the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
and Frank Lloyd Wright's
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
Fallingwater
Fallingwater
Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh...
made entirely of LEGO
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
bricks, and a retrospective on American Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
artist Hildreth Meiere
Hildreth Meiere
Hildreth Meiere , American artist, architectural artist, muralist and mosaicist.- Biography :After studying at New York's Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, Meiere studied in Florence. Being exposed to the Renaissance Masters, she is quoted as saying, "After that I could not be satisfied...
.
Visitors from around the world come for exhibitions, public programs, family festivals, and tours to gain insight into the history and future of the world we create for ourselves. The Museum's lecture series such as Spotlight on Design and For the Greener Good welcome the architects and designers from around the world to discuss their work. Youth education programs such as CityVision and Design Apprenticeship Program and a variety of school programs introduce kids and teachers to design education as a hands-on way of enhancing math, science, and art skills simultaneously.
The National Building Museum Shop has been recognized in local and national media as the “best museum shop.” The Museum Shop sells books about the built environment and an array of housewares, educational toys, watches, and items for an office, all with an emphasis on design. The National Building Museum Shop was honored in 2007 as the “Best Museum Store” in the country by Niche magazine, "Best All-Around Museum Shop" in the region by the The Washington Post, a “Top Shop” by the Washingtonian, and named best museum shop in DC by National Geographic Traveler's blog, Intelligent Travel in July 2009. In 2010, the Huffington Post included the National Building Museum in a story, "Museums with Amazing Gift Shops."
Pension Building
The National Building Museum is housed in the former Pension BureauPension Bureau
The Pension Bureau was a division of the United States Department of the Interior. There was a separate entity at the United States Department of War for handling military pension claims....
building, a brick structure completed in 1887 and designed by Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs
Montgomery C. Meigs
Montgomery Cunningham Meigs was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, construction engineer for a number of facilities in Washington, D.C., and Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War....
, the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
quartermaster general
Quartermaster general
A Quartermaster general is the staff officer in charge of supplies for a whole army.- The United Kingdom :In the United Kingdom, the Quartermaster-General to the Forces is one of the most senior generals in the British Army...
, which is notable for several architectural features, including the spectacular interior columns and a frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
, sculpted by Caspar Buberl
Caspar Buberl
Caspar Buberl was an American sculptor. He is best known for his Civil War monuments, for the terra cotta relief panels on the Garfield Memorial in Cleveland, Ohio , and for the -long frieze on the Pension Building in Washington, D.C..-Biography:Born in Königsberg, Bohemia, Caspar Buberl (1834 –...
, stretching around the exterior of the building and depicting Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
soldiers in scenes somewhat reminiscent of those on Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
as well as the Horsemen Frieze of the Parthenon
Parthenon
The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...
. The vast interior, measuring 316 × 116 feet (96 × 35 m), has been used to hold inauguration
Inauguration
An inauguration is a formal ceremony to mark the beginning of a leader's term of office. An example is the ceremony in which the President of the United States officially takes the oath of office....
balls; a Presidential Seal
Seal of the President of the United States
The Seal of the President of the United States is used to mark correspondence from the U.S. president to the United States Congress, and is also used as a symbol of the presidency. The central design, based on the Great Seal of the United States, is the official coat of arms of the U.S...
is set into the floor near the south entrance.
After the Civil War, the United States Congress passed legislation that greatly extended the scope of pension coverage for veterans and for their survivors and dependents, notably their widows and orphans. This ballooned to over 1,500 the number of staff needed to implement and administer the new benefits system, and quickly required a new building from which to run it all. Meigs was chosen to design and construct the new building. He departed from the established Greco-Roman models that had been the basis of government buildings in Washington, D.C., until then and which continued after the Pension Building's completion. Meigs based his design on Italian Renaissance precedents, notably Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
's Palazzo Farnese
Palazzo Farnese, Rome
Palazzo Farnese is a High Renaissance palace in Rome, which currently houses the French embassy and the Ecole Française de Rome ....
and the Palazzo della Cancelleria
Palazzo della Cancelleria
The Palazzo della Cancelleria is a Renaissance palace in Rome, Italy, situated between the present Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Campo de' Fiori, in the rione of Parione...
.
Included in his design was a frieze sculpted by Caspar Buberl
Caspar Buberl
Caspar Buberl was an American sculptor. He is best known for his Civil War monuments, for the terra cotta relief panels on the Garfield Memorial in Cleveland, Ohio , and for the -long frieze on the Pension Building in Washington, D.C..-Biography:Born in Königsberg, Bohemia, Caspar Buberl (1834 –...
. Because a sculpture of that size was well out of Meigs's budget, he had Buberl create 28 different scenes, totaling 69 feet (21 m) in length, which were then mixed and slightly modified to create the continuous 1,200-foot (365-m) parade of over 1,300 figures. Because of the 28 sections' modification and mixture, it is only in careful examination that the frieze is seen to be the same figures repeated several times. The sculpture includes infantry, navy, artillery, cavalry, and medical components, as well as a good deal of the supply and quartermaster functions, for it was in that capacity that Meigs had served during the Civil War.
Meigs's correspondence with Buberl reveals that Meigs insisted that a black teamster, who "must be a negro, a plantation slave, freed by war", be included in the quartermaster panel. This figure was ultimately to assume a central position, over the building's west entrance.
Built before modern artificial ventilation, the building was designed to maximize air circulation: all offices not only had exterior windows, but also opened onto the court, which was designed to admit cool air at ground level and exhaust hot air at the roof. Made of brick and tile, the stairs were designed for the limitations of disabled and aging veterans, having a gradual ascent with low steps. In addition, each step slanted slightly from back to front to allow easy drainage: a flight could be washed easily by pouring water from the top.
When Philip Sheridan
Philip Sheridan
Philip Henry Sheridan was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S...
was asked to comment on the building, his biting reply echoed the negative sentiment of much of the Washington establishment of the day: "Too bad the damn thing is fireproof." A similar quote is also attributed to William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...
, perhaps casting doubt on the truth of the Sheridan tale.
The completed building, sometimes called "Meigs Old Red Barn," required more than 15,000,000 bricks, which, according to the wit of the day, were each counted by the parsimonious Meigs.
Becoming a museum
Chloethiel Woodard Smith
Chloethiel Woodard Smith was an American architect and urban planner whose career was centered in Washington, D.C.-Career:...
of possible other uses for the building. Her 1967 report suggested a museum dedicated to the building arts. The building was then listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1969. In 1980, Congress created the National Building Museum as a private, non-profit institution. The building itself was formally renamed the National Building Museum in 1997.
Every year, the annual Christmas in Washington
Christmas in Washington
Christmas in Washington is an annual Christmas television special that currently airs on the U.S. TNT network.-Background:One of two annual holiday specials produced by George Stevens, Jr. , the variety show first aired in 1981 on NBC before moving to its current home on TNT in 1998. Recorded in...
program is filmed at the museum, with the President and First Lady.
On June 7, 2008, Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign for the Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
presidential
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
nomination with a farewell rally at the museum.
Awards
The National Building Museum presents three annual awards: the Honor AwardHonor Award
The National Building Museum promotes excellence in architecture, engineering, construction, planning, and design. In furtherance of that mission, the Museum instituted an annual Honor Award in 1986 to recognize individuals and organizations that have made important contributions to the U.S.'s...
for individuals and organizations who have made important contributions to the U.S.'s building heritage; the Vincent Scully Prize
Vincent Scully Prize
The Vincent Scully Prize was established in 1999 to recognize exemplary practice, scholarship or criticism in architecture, historic preservation and urban design...
, which honors exemplary practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture, historic preservation, and urban design; and the Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology
Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology
The Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology is awarded annually by the National Building Museum to recognize outstanding leadership and innovation in the field of construction methods and processes, including engineering design and construction techniques and practices...
, which recognizes outstanding leadership and innovation in the field of construction methods and processes.
Further reading
- Lyons, Linda Brody, Building a Landmark: A Guide to the Historic Home of the National Building Museum, National Building Museum, Washington D.C., 1999
- McDaniel, Joyce L., The Collected Works of Caspar Buberl: An Analysis of a Nineteenth Century American Sculptor, MA thesis, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 1976
- Weeks, Christopher, AIAAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C., 3rd ed., Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, pp. 73–74. - Schiavo, Laura Burd. National Building Museum: Art Spaces. New York: Scala Publishers, 2007.