National Building Museum

This is my favorite museum in DC (at 3rd and G--if you want to visit). Sure I’ve been to amazing art shows in the National Gallery, but as a building I love this one most. Each time Dad has visited we’ve stopped by the Building Museum. We both love architecture and enjoy the mix of art, design and inspiration found in exhibits about people moving, or the Rural Studio school.


This photo is taken in the café at one end of the atrium. This building was built by the Civil War Veterans’ bureau in the later 1800’s. At the time one-third of the Federal Budget was for CWV’s. The architect considered the end user's needs, as well as future building needs, with great care. He built deep, shallow steps, easier to climb if the disabled.
He put elevator shafts in the building even though they were just beginning to be used. No one approved their use, but he left the shafts for the future nonetheless. Around each office level he ran a system where someone could attach papers to a mechanical device that would run them around the building to another office. The top of the atrium is lined with clearstory windows; once opened, the building itself functioned as a natural air conditioner.

As a designer, the thought behind a design matters almost as much as the end result. Just being in this building gives me a profound satisfaction that it was done ‘right’.

The show we visited was The Green House. Dad bought me the show book (unprompted—really!!) to inspire me to build a house. Actually, Dad really wants me to buy a piece of industrial wasteland in California and transform it into a lovely dwelling area. He was inspired by a home, shown in the exhibit, built out of old shipping containers in a corner of an industrial area. The property is enclosed in 12-foot metal walls and contains a lush recycled-water stream and tropical garden. I, too, am inspired by the thought. I don’t see it in the next two years, but I love considering what we could do in the future.