Rotunda, Art & Industries Building, Smithsonian Institute: December 2021
Slow and steady
The new national museum, the Smithsonian, needed display space. In 1881, with the profit made from the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, Congress had a new Smithsonian exhibition hall built just for displaying its ever-growing collection. The building was purpose-built to display things and, over time, acted as a huge staging ground for future museums - Natural History, American History, and Air and Space. The kernels of all those museums were germinated in the Arts and Industries building. After that, for a time it held exhibits from the Philadelphia Centennial to remind us of life 100 years ago (this is my enduring memory of the place). The building did not age well, however, and was closed on and off for repairs. In 2004, it was closed for major renovations which continue to the present. It briefly reopened for the FUTURES Exhibit [see: FUTURES], but will close again for additional TLC.
I have watched the Mall museums grow during my lifetime. The East Wing of the National Gallery [see: East Wing] was built just before I came to university in the District. The Air and Space Museum was "new" when I was a kid. I saw the Asian Art, African Art, Museum of the American Indian, and the African American Museum spring up on the Mall in my lifetime. Looking back, it was quite a transformation, and there is still talk of expansion. When the Arts and Industries Building is FINALLY renovated, what will it be? There is talk of it as a Latino Museum among other things. For me, a positive movement is witnessing an expansion of museums along Mall no matter how contentious the collections might be. Museums reflect who we were and who are are. [see: calendars and museums]
In the case of the building pictured above, the excruciating slowness of its restoration seems so typical of Washington. Someone comes up with an idea, it takes forever to get the money, and by the time construction starts the idea has changed five or six times. No wonder then that what was once the nation's FIRST national museum display is still mired in renovation and "what next"? The interior is not all that complex and a real renovation of the space could be completed in months, not years. They are not renovating the Temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt - it is a brick building with an iron frame from about 150 years ago. More industrial than palatial, it was meant to display things in natural light. Getting it back on the grid should not be this difficult.
If I were to throw my hat in the ring on its next iteration, I would just leave it as "display space" for rotating exhibits from all the other museums (which urban myth tells us only can display a fraction of what they actually hold). If greedy eyes look on the National Mall for more space, let them take the old Department of Agriculture building. I am sure this essential government agency would love new, modern space elsewhere in the District and its HUGE footprint on the Mall could be turned into something quite amazing. If other cities are a predictor of what might happen, keep in mind that the venerable Louvre was, in part, government offices for YEARS and has only recently given up that space for an expanded museum collection. That process took a long time. Perhaps this is the future of the last non-museum building on the Mall in Washington, as well?
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