Newly renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery maintains integrity of original building
However entertaining you may find its cutthroat political atmosphere, this city has long been a backwater in terms of contemporary architecture. More often than not, when anyone here tinkers with old landmarks, they turn them into kitsch.
So I wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of visiting the newly renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. The museums reside in the venerable Patent Office Building, one of this country’s finest examples of 19th-century Greek Revival architecture. When the British architect Norman Foster was hired to renovate the museums’ courtyard and enclose it under a glass roof, he essentially was told: Don’t dare disturb the old building.
Such strictures might have handcuffed a less nimble architect. But Mr. Foster seems to have relished the challenge. Rather than lock horns with preservationists, he embraced his task with fetishistic glee. Capped by an undulating glass-and-steel roof, the courtyard is inserted into the existing building with striking delicacy. The project shows how an architect can respect the past without dressing it up in historicist frippery.
Read entire article at NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF in the NYT
So I wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of visiting the newly renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. The museums reside in the venerable Patent Office Building, one of this country’s finest examples of 19th-century Greek Revival architecture. When the British architect Norman Foster was hired to renovate the museums’ courtyard and enclose it under a glass roof, he essentially was told: Don’t dare disturb the old building.
Such strictures might have handcuffed a less nimble architect. But Mr. Foster seems to have relished the challenge. Rather than lock horns with preservationists, he embraced his task with fetishistic glee. Capped by an undulating glass-and-steel roof, the courtyard is inserted into the existing building with striking delicacy. The project shows how an architect can respect the past without dressing it up in historicist frippery.