Visit to National Building Museum

Today's Agenda: The title of this museum sounds so boring, I know, but it really has a lot to offer! Great space and fabulous bookstore/gift shop. I could spend several hours pouring through the books. And shopping for gifts for the holidays. Not to mention grabbing some of the great giftwrap they have.

Today, I found this book on their display of "new releases". It looks fantastic. Resisted buying it right away though and am going to order from Amazon for $30 instead of $45. Instant gratification vs $15 -- I can do that.

Check out descriptions about the museum and the book...

About the Book:
New York City–based couple Robert and Cortney Novogratz have been renovating and designing unique and hip homes for families for over ten years. Describing their signature style as a sophisticated but bohemian mix of high and low, new and old, they offer their realistic advice on how to create original, warm interiors with ease. One part practical guide, one part inspirational volume on creating a look for the home, the book pairs humorous anecdotes about the pitfalls and pleasures of renovation with a treasure trove of decorating tips: how to use both boutique and flea-market finds; how to inject lots of personality into a room affordably; how to decorate kids’ rooms so they appeal to children and adults; how to easily rehabilitate outdated furnishings; and many more. In each of the ten projects featured—which include a townhouse in New York City, a country house in Massachusetts, and a beach house in Brazil—before and after shots document the agony and ecstasy of any renovation project, as well as revealing the design duo’s vision and remarkable ability to see through the most awful of spaces to the amazing home that lies within.

About the Authors: Robert and Cortney Novogratz, native Southerners, came to New York City more than ten years ago and soon after founded Sixx Design. Featured in scores of American and European shelter magazines, their work includes residential and commercial projects throughout the world. Their next major project is a six-story manse that includes a full-size basketball court.

About the Museum:

The historic home of the National Building Museum stands today as one of the great American buildings of the nineteenth century and one of Washington, DC’s most spectacular works of public architecture. Built between 1882 and 1887, the project began following a Senate Appropriations Committee approval of $250,000 to purchase a suitable site and construct a fireproof building for the US Pension Bureau’s headquarters. US Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs was appointed as both the architect and engineer for the building. The building was Meig's last and most important architectural work and the one of which he was most proud.

The building was designed for two distinct functions: to house the Pension Bureau and to provide a suitably grand space for Washington’s social and political functions. The design was inspired by two Roman palaces. The exterior is modeled closely on the brick, monumentally-scaled Palazzo Farnese, completed to Michelangelo’s specifications in 1589. The building's interior, with its open arcaded galleries surrounding a central hall, is reminiscent of the early-sixteenth-century Palazzo della Cancelleria. For the colossal Corinthian columns that divide the Great Hall, Meigs took his inspiration from the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome built by Michelangelo in the mid-sixteenth century.

The Great Hall measures 316 feet by 116 feet, and is 159 feet at its highest point. The fountain is 28 feet across and still has its original terra cotta trim.

Brick was the primary building material for the Pension Building; a choice largely driven by the affordability of brick and the directive that the building be fireproof. Despite the use of such a functional, ordinary material Meigs employed expert bricklayers and used pressed red brick to achieve the building's regular, smooth face. The decorative elements of the building were also accomplished in an "economic" fashion with ornamental terra cotta and painted plaster on brick surfaces rather than expensive building materials such as carved stone or fine marble. Decorative terra cotta details include the frieze along the building’s exterior, relief spandrels and decorative keystones over the doorways, and the detailed bases of the Corinthian columns. The interior of the building is dominated not by offices and storage facilities, but by a grand central space, the Great Hall. Measuring 116 x 316 feet, the Great Hall features a central fountain and is divided into three courts by two screens of four colossal Corinthian columns—among the tallest classical columns in the world.

From the design of the roof to the ingenious ventilation system that created a continuous flow of fresh air throughout the building, the Pension Building is a marvel of engineering. An ingenious system of windows, vents, and open archways allows the Great Hall to function as a reservoir for light and air.

General Accounting Office workers in the Great Hall, 1920s.

The Pension Building continued to serve as office space for a variety of government tenants through the 1960s. The government began to consider demolishing the building as it was badly in need of repair, but they came under pressure from preservationists and commissioned architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith to explore other possibilities for its use. In her 1967 report, “The Pension Building: A Building in Search of a Client,” Smith introduced the idea that the building be converted to a museum of the building arts. In 1969, the Pension Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Congress passed a resolution in 1978 calling for the preservation of the building as a national treasure, and a 1980 Act of Congress mandated the creation of the National Building Museum as a private, non profit educational institution. In 1997, the historic building was officially renamed the National Building Museum.