DC STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE Determination of

DC STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE Determination of Eligibility Form Smithsonian QuadrangleDETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY FORM
Square(s) and Lot(s): Reservation 3A
Property Owner(s): Smithsonian Institution
The property is being evaluated for potential historical significance as:
An individual building or structure. A contributing element of a historic district:1
A possible expansion of a historic district: Specify A previously unevaluated historic district to be known as: Specify An archaeological resource with site number(s): Specify An object (e.g. statue, stone marker etc.): Specify A new multiple property/thematic study regarding: Specify Association with a multiple property/thematic study: Specify Other: Specify
See continuation sheets for current photographs of the property, map, description, rationale for the
proposed determination of eligibility, images, drawings, and other pertinent information.2
PREPARER’S DETERMINATION
Applicable National Register Criteria: Applicable Considerations:
A B C D A B C D E F G
Prepared By: Daria Gasparini, Principal, Robinson & Associates, Inc. Date: May 25, 2017
DC SHPO REVIEW AND COMMENTS
Concurs with Recommendation Does Not Concur with Recommendation
David Maloney Date: District of Columbia State Historic Preservation Officer Reviewed by: DC Government Project/Permit Project Log Number:
1 The Smithsonian Quadrangle is a contributing element of the National Mall Historic District. See Robinson &
Associates, Inc., National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, “National Mall Historic District,” August
31, 2016, prepared for the National Park Service. Although the purpose of this individual Determination of
Eligibility for the Smithsonian Quadrangle is not to elaborate extensively on its contributing status to the historic
district, a brief explanatory statement in the Previous Evaluations section is provided.
2 All photographs are by Robinson & Associates (June 2016) unless otherwise indicated.
DC State Historic Preservation Office
Determination of Eligibility Form for the Smithsonian Quadrangle
Figure 1: Aerial view of the Smithsonian Institution Building (foreground) and the Smithsonian Quadrangle’s Enid
A. Haupt Garden, National Museum of African Art entrance pavilion (upper left), and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
entrance pavilion (upper right). (Photo courtesy Martin Stupich.)
Figure 2: View looking northwest from Independence Avenue of the entrance pavilions to the National Museum of African Art (right foreground) and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (left background), Smithsonian Quadrangle.
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Figure 3: View looking north across the central parterre of the Enid A. Haupt Garden, Smithsonian Quadrangle, to
the Smithsonian Institution Building.
Figure 4: Map of the Mall with the location of the Smithsonian Quadrangle identified with an orange star. [USGS Topographic Map, 2014]
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Figure 5: Site plan showing the location and arrangement of the Enid A. Haupt Garden and the aboveground
pavilions of the Smithsonian Quadrangle. [Image courtesy Surfacedesign]
INTRODUCTION
The Smithsonian Quadrangle is located on a 4.2-acre site within the Smithsonian’s South Mall Campus,
which encompasses approximately 12 acres of land within the National Mall Historic District in
Washington, D.C. The site is bounded by the Freer Gallery of Art (Freer Sackler Gallery) on the west, the
Smithsonian Institution Building (the Castle) on the north, the Arts and Industries Building on the east,
and Independence Avenue on the south. (See Figure 5.) The Quadrangle comprises a multilevel
subterranean structure with three aboveground entrance pavilions set within a rooftop garden dedicated as
the Enid A. Haupt Garden. The building functions as a combined museum, office, education, and support
complex that contains the Smithsonian’s S. Dillon Ripley Center, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and the
National Museum of African Art. The Smithsonian Quadrangle (1983-87) was designed by Shepley,
Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott (Jean Paul Carlhian, Design Principal) in the postmodern style
following a concept by Japanese architect Junzo Yoshimura. The landscape architect of record was Sasaki
Associates. In 2016, the Smithsonian Quadrangle was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as
a contributing building to the National Mall Historic District.
PURPOSE AND METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this Determination of Eligibility is to provide an evaluation of the Smithsonian
Quadrangle for its potential significance as an individual building under the National Register of Historic
Places Criteria for Evaluation in satisfaction of the requirements of the D.C. Historic Preservation Office.
A Determination of Eligibility is an initial consideration of the National Register eligibility of a resource
used to fulfill a state or federal agency’s obligations under Section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act. It provides objective, accurate, and meaningful documentation of a historic resource to
assist in reaching a consensus determination between an agency and a State Historic Preservation Office
and can be followed by further evaluations.
For the purposes of this Determination of Eligibility, the Quadrangle is classified as a building. This
classification, which is consistent with Quadrangle’s resource type in the National Register nomination
for the National Mall Historic District, refers to the historically and functionally related unit comprised of
the Enid A. Haupt Garden, the entrance pavilions to the Sackler Gallery, the National Museum of African
Art, and the Ripley Center, and the Quadrangle’s subterranean structure.
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The content of this Determination of Eligibility follows the guidelines established by the D.C. Historic
Preservation Office. It includes a description of the resource focusing on its principal public spaces, a
concise narrative describing the historical background in which the building and its associated landscape
were designed and developed, a description of key changes to the building and grounds over time, an
evaluation of significance, and a list of key features. Since this Determination of Eligibility does not
recommend that the Quadrangle is individually eligible for the National Register at this time, it does not
define a period of significance or provide an evaluation of integrity. It does, however, include a list of
“key features,” which have been defined as the important extant features remaining from the original
construction. Drafting this list assisted in the process of evaluating the resource and provided a knowledge
base to guide decision making. The list of key features may also be used as reference for future
evaluations of the Quadrangle’s individual eligibility.
The evaluation of significance section includes a summary of the Quadrangle’s existing National Register
status as a contributing building of the National Mall Historic District and an assessment of its potential
significance as an individual building at the local and national levels. The evaluation follows the U.S.
Department of the Interior guidelines for applying the National Register Criteria for Evaluation and
Criteria Considerations. The National Register Criteria for Evaluation include: Criterion A, for properties
associated with significant events; Criterion B, for properties associated with significant persons;
Criterion C, for properties that embody distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of
construction, properties that represent the work of a master, or properties that possess high artistic value;
and Criterion D, for properties that yield information important to prehistory or history. Due to the fact
that it was completed in 1987, this Determination of Eligibility also evaluates the Quadrangle under
National Register Criterion Consideration G, for properties less than fifty years old. Criterion
Considerations set forth special standards for listing certain kinds of properties usually excluded from the
National Register. Criterion Consideration G states that special exception is made for properties of the
recent past that are of exceptional importance at the national, state, or local level. National Register
guidelines state that Criterion Considerations are applied only to individual properties, not to contributing
elements of eligible historic districts. Components of eligible districts do not have to meet special
requirements unless they make up the majority of the district or are the focal point of the district.
This Determination of Eligibility recognizes that decisions concerning the significance of properties,
especially the exceptional importance of properties as required to meet Criterion Consideration G, can be
made reliably only when the relationship of individual properties to other similar properties is understood.
As such, the development of historic contexts – organizational frameworks based on themes, geographic
limits, or chronological periods – is a key step in decisions about the identification, evaluation, and
registration of historic properties. Several kinds of information are needed to develop an historic context,
including surveys or inventories, published sources, and archival research. Currently, historic contexts in
which to evaluate the individual contributions of the Quadrangle exploring such themes as postmodern
architecture in Washington, D.C., the events and trends that shaped the late twentieth-century
development of the Smithsonian Institution, and many other topics of the immediate past do not yet exist.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Smithsonian Quadrangle is a postmodern style building designed by architect Jean Paul Carlhian of
Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott with landscape architects Sasaki Associates, following a
design concept developed by architect Junzo Yoshimura. It was constructed between 1983 and 1987 on a
site south of the Smithsonian Institution Building. This Determination of Eligibility has determined that
the Quadrangle does not now qualify as exceptionally significant at the national or local level as required
under National Register Criteria Consideration G for resources less than fifty years of age. As such, this
evaluation recommends that the building does not at this time meet the eligibility requirements for
individual listing in the National Register. Consideration should be given to reviewing the potential
significance of the resource when adequate local or national historic contexts are available or when
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additional time has passed. This Determination of Eligibility recognizes the current National Register
status of the Quadrangle as a contributing resource of the National Mall Historic District and concludes
that this is the appropriate level of recognition at this time.
DESCRIPTION
Overview
The Smithsonian Quadrangle is comprised of three underground levels containing exhibition galleries,
administrative offices, and educational spaces, three aboveground entrance pavilions, and a designed
landscape. The building’s substructure is constructed of a 42-inch-thick reinforced concrete foundation
mat located 57 feet below grade, 30-inch-thick reinforced concrete foundation walls, and a subterranean
roof structure consisting of a concrete deck covered by a double-layer membrane.3 Between the roof
membrane and the earth fill and top soil above is a drainage void created by a 6-inch layer of gravel
resting on precast concrete blocks with integrated pedestals.4 The Quadrangle’s superstructure consists of
three discrete aboveground structures placed in a garden landscape and sited to approximate a quadrangle,
or open-air courtyard, south of the Smithsonian Institution Building. They include the one-story
rectangular pavilions that flank the entrance to the Enid A. Haupt Garden from Independence Avenue and
lead to the Sackler Gallery and the National Museum of African Art and the circular pavilion located in
the northwest corner of the site that accesses the Ripley Center. The rectangular pavilions share a similar
form and massing and are both clad in granite with copper roofing. The total size of the building
(including the aboveground pavilions) is 360,000 gross square feet, ninety-six percent of which is located
underground. (See floor plans in Appendix A.) The 4.2-acre Haupt Garden provides a setting for the
entrance pavilions and features a central parterre, two formal component gardens, broad footpaths, trees
and other plant materials, and a variety of small-scale features.
National Museum of African Art
Exterior Description
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art specializes in ancient and contemporary African
visual arts. The entrance pavilion to the museum is located in the southeast quadrant of the Quadrangle
site. (See Figure 5.) The museum’s exhibition galleries and support spaces are located underground within
the Quadrangle’s subterranean levels.
The museum’s one-story entrance pavilion measures 92 feet long along its east-west axis and 62 feet
wide. It is 24 feet high measuring to the top of the cornice and 36 feet high at the top of the domes on the
roof. The pavilion is faced with “Sunset Red” granite from Texas that has a pink hue selected to
harmonize with the red brick façade of the adjacent Arts and Industries Building. The round arch Beaux-
Arts articulation of the Freer Gallery of Art is the influence for the circular motif evident in many aspects
of the pavilion’s design.5 The roof features six copper-clad domes and granite finials. (The center dome
on the south side has a skylight.) Circular shapes are used at the entrances to the pavilion and within the
3 Press release, “The Smithsonian’s New Underground Museum Project,” September 1987, Smithsonian Institution
Archives, Accession 06-225: Smithsonian Institution, Office of Architectural History and Historic Preservation,
Building Files, Box 45, hereafter shortened to SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 45. The Quadrangle was constructed using
slurry (or diaphragm) walls. This system employed concrete walls that functioned both as load-bearing elements and
as a watertight membrane.
4 Smithsonian Institution press release, “The Smithsonian’s New Underground Museum Project,” September 1987,
SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 45.
5 Edwards Park and Jean Paul Carlhian, A New View from the Castle (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1987): 104-5.
round-arch windows and blind windows that articulate the exterior bays. (See Figure 6.) The window on
the south façade has blue tinted glass; the three openings on the north have clear class. The pavilion is
divided into three bays on the north and south façades and two bays on the east and west. The main
entrance to the museum is located on the west façade of the pavilion, where the entrance and exit doors
are set perpendicular to the west façade within a deep recess. Additional doors are located in the center
bay of the north façade and in the south bay of east façade. With the exception of the entrance bays, there
are round-arch windows or blind windows with stylized keystones in the center of each bay. Flat granite
panels and bands suggesting pilasters, a stringcourse, and frieze articulate the exterior walls of the
pavilion. The granite used on the exterior has various finishes. Around the windows and doors the granite
is polished; along the roofline the stone is rough.
Interior Description
The ground floor of the National Museum of African Art entrance pavilion functions as a lobby and
visitor services area. (See floor plans in Appendix A.) Along the entire north side of the ground floor is a
long rectangular gallery under three domed coffers. (See Figure 7.) Three tall, glazed, arched openings
along the north wall of the gallery provide natural light to the interior. Within the center arch is a double
door. On the south side of the ground floor is an open, curved staircase that descends to the first sublevel,
as well as an elevator lobby, a small security screening area, and a room containing storage lockers. The
staircase has granite treads and risers and metal handrails. (See Figure 8.) A pair of elevators near the east
door provides access to the lower levels. The interior walls of the pavilion are limestone. Wallboard
panels (not original) with a wood cornice (not original) cover the lower half of the walls of the gallery.
(See Figure 7.) Decorative wood screens (not original) are set within the arched openings of the south
wall of the gallery. The door and window frames are painted metal. The floors of the pavilion are granite.
Clustered around the staircase landing on the first sublevel of the National Museum of African Art are
several exhibition galleries. (See Figure 9.) A skylight measuring 117 feet long and 8 feet wide provides
natural light to the gallery spaces south of the stair hall. The floors of the galleries are carpeted, and the
walls are wallboard with plywood backing. The walls of the main circulation corridors and stair halls are
limestone. In addition to the museum galleries, public areas of the first sublevel include a gift shop and
restrooms. The elevator vestibules have wood floors and wood paneled walls. The second sublevel of the
museum includes a double-height exhibition gallery, a lecture hall, and a workshop. On the third sublevel,
at the bottom of the light well created by the open staircase, is a shallow circular fountain basin with a
single center jet. The basin has blue tiles and a painted metal rim. There is an exhibition gallery on this
level as well as administrative offices and a corridor that provides public access to the Ripley Center.
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Figure 6: National Museum of African Art entrance pavilion, looking east.
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Figure 7: Ground floor of the National Museum of Figure 8: Ground floor of the National Museum of African Art pavilion, looking west. African Art pavilion, looking south.
Figure 9: First sublevel of the National Museum of African Art pavilion, looking southeast.
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Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is one of the Smithsonian’s two museums of Asian Art. (The other is the
Freer Gallery of Art, which opened to the public in 1923 and is connected to the Sackler Gallery by an
underground passageway.) The entrance pavilion to the Sackler Gallery is located in the southwest
quadrant of the Quadrangle site. (See Figure 5.) The museum’s exhibition galleries and support spaces are
located underground within the Quadrangle’s subterranean levels.
The Sackler Gallery entrance pavilion has the same dimensions as the National Museum of African Art
pavilion – 92 feet long by 62 feet wide. (See Figure 10.) It measures 24 feet to the top of the cornice and
38 feet to the apex of the roof, which features six copper-clad pyramidal forms and finials. (The center
pyramid on the south side has a skylight.) The pavilion is faced with “Rockville Beige” granite from
Minnesota. This granite was chosen to complement the cream-colored stone of the adjacent Freer Gallery.
While the design of the National Museum of African Art pavilion features circular shapes and round
arches, the design of the Sackler Gallery pavilion employs a pyramid motif inspired by the towers of the
Arts and Industries Building.6 Like the east entrance pavilion, the Sackler Gallery pavilion is three bays
wide by two bays deep, and the exterior walls feature granite panels and bands suggesting classical
architectural treatments. Diamond shapes are used to articulate the pavilion’s main entrance, window and
door openings, and blind windows. The principal entrance to the Sackler Gallery pavilion is on the east
façade on axis with the entrance to the National Museum of African Art pavilion. It features entrance and
exit doors set perpendicular to the west façade within a deep recess. Additional doors are located in the
center bay of the north façade and in the south bay of west façade.
In plan, the ground floor of the Sackler Gallery pavilion is nearly a mirror image of the ground floor of
the National Museum of African Art pavilion. (See floor plans in Appendix A.) The space includes a long
rectangular gallery along the north wall, an entrance vestibule with security desks near the east doors, a
diamond-shaped open staircase that provides access to the first sublevel, a small locker storage area, and
an elevator lobby near the west doors. (See Figure 11 and Figure 12.) Tall glazed openings with interior
screens (not original) along the north wall of the gallery look out onto the Haupt Garden. The interior
walls of the pavilion are limestone. The floors are granite. The diamond-shaped staircase to the first
sublevel has granite treads and risers and a painted metal handrail. The open staircase surrounds a light
well that extends to the third sublevel where there is a shallow diamond-shaped fountain basin with two
water jets. The basin has green tiles and a painted metal rim.
On the first sublevel of the Sackler Gallery there are exhibition galleries and a gift shop. A long, narrow
north-facing skylight illuminates the exhibition galleries located south of the stair hall. The landing at the
base of the stair is granite, and an adjacent lobby area has oak flooring. The corridor outside the gift shop
also has wood flooring. (See Figure 13.) The walls of the galleries are wallboard with plywood backing;
the floors of the galleries are carpeted. An underground passageway on the first sublevel connects the
Sackler Gallery with the Freer Gallery of Art. The second sublevel of the Sackler Gallery has a gallery,
classroom, and other support spaces. The lowest level includes a large exhibition space, administrative
offices, and a corridor connecting to the Ripley Center.
In addition to the public museum spaces on the first, second, and third sublevels of the Quadrangle, there
is a loading dock (on the first sublevel), museum support spaces, offices and administration areas used by
Smithsonian staff, a research library, and mechanical rooms. These spaces are not open to the public and
have not been surveyed for the purposes of this evaluation.
6 Park and Carlhian, A New View from the Castle, 104-5.
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Figure 10: View looking west of the entrance pavilion to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Quadrangle.
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Figure 11: Ground floor of the Sackler Gallery Figure 12: Ground floor of the Sackler Gallery
entrance pavilion, looking south. entrance pavilion, looking northwest.
Figure 13: First sublevel of the Sackler Gallery, circulation corridor and elevator lobby.
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S. Dillon Ripley Center
The S. Dillon Ripley Center, which occupies the third sublevel of the Quadrangle, is accessed by a
pavilion located in the northwest corner of the site. (See Figure 14.) The pavilion is constructed of
limestone and has a 42-foot-diameter circular footprint. Its design features a copper domed roof with a
scalloped edge. The roof is supported on smooth columns; several of the bays between the columns are
glazed. The main entrance to the Ripley Center entrance pavilion faces north toward Jefferson Drive.
On the ground floor of the Ripley Center pavilion is an entrance hall with a security screening area. (See
floor plans in Appendix A.) The interior walls of the pavilion are limestone, and the floors are granite.
The ground-floor space has a domed ceiling. From the lobby, a curved staircase and an elevator descend
to the first sublevel where a set of escalators extend two levels down to the third and lowest level of the
Quadrangle complex. (See Figure 15.) The staircase and elevator also provide access to the second and
third sublevels from the ground floor. Adjacent to the large multilevel escalator hall is a colonnaded
rotunda, which serves as a transition space between the hall and a vast concourse measuring 285 feet
long, 28 feet wide, and three stories high. (See Figure 16 and Figure 17.) The floor of the concourse, or
great hall, is tiled. At the center of the space is a square fountain basin; on either side of the fountain
along the length of the hall are three large circular planters. At the east end of the great hall is a trompe
l’oeil mural by artist Richard Haas that portrays a foliated sunken garden with stone arches and a long
vista depicting the Smithsonian Institution Building and the Arts and Industries Building.7 (See Figure
18.) Along the north side of the great hall are studios, classrooms, and a lecture hall. South of the great
hall are offices and administrative spaces, a conference suite, and the Discovery Theater, a box space
without built-in seats that is used primarily for children’s theater and related activities. In addition, two
corridors leading from the great hall provide access to the third sublevels of the Sackler Gallery and the
National Museum of African Art. Along the south side of the third sublevel is a large mechanical room.
Exhibition panels (not original) cover the lower walls of the great hall and the lower halves of two
double-height mirrors set in arched openings at the center point of the hall. (See Figure 17 and Figure 19.)
The mirrors (now partially concealed) originally created the illusion of a cross axis at the midway point of
the space. The doorways to the classrooms and studios along the north wall of the great hall feature flush
wood doors with glazed sidelights and glazed transoms. The doorways along the south wall leading to the
offices of the Smithsonian Associates, the International Center, and the Friends of the Smithsonian feature
double glass doors with glazed transoms (not original). The doorframes each have a simple architrave and
a projecting cornice on flat brackets. Within the upper half of the south wall of the great hall is a series of
fixed interior windows. On the opposite side of the hall, the upper wall features several horizontal bands
of fixed windows. Two glazed corridors pass above the great hall at the second sublevel. The ceiling of
the great hall has four 10-foot-square skylights.
7 The Haas mural is an accessioned artwork that is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collections.
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Figure 14: S. Dillon Ripley Center entrance pavilion, looking east.
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Figure 15: Ripley Center escalator hall. Figure 16: Ripley Center rotunda.
Figure 17: Ripley Center great hall, looking west. Note the two double-height mirrors set in arched openings at
the center point of the hall (on the far left and far right of the photograph).
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Figure 18: East wall of the Ripley Center on the third Figure 19: Ripley Center great hall, looking southwest.
sublevel of the Smithsonian Quadrangle.
Enid A. Haupt Garden8
The Haupt Garden covers a 4.2-acre rectangular site composed of a large central parterre (a formal garden
consisting of planted beds set on a level surface) that is bordered on the north, east, and west by lawn
panels. The eastern and western panels form the setting for two formal component gardens, two museum
pavilions, a loading dock ramp, skylights, enclosed stairwells, and other small-scale features. Broad brick
footpaths with granite curbs provide circulation through the space. In addition to acting as the roof of the
Quadrangle’s underground structure, the Haupt Garden provides a setting for its entrance pavilions,
integrates the grounds south of the Castle with the surrounding urban landscape, and formalizes the
approach to the south entrance of the Smithsonian Institution Building from Independence Avenue.
At the center of the Haupt Garden is an elaborate parterre. (See Figure 3 and Figure 20.) The parterre’s
rectangular garden bed is arranged along the north-south axis defined by the south doors of the
Smithsonian Institution Building and the Renwick Gates, which stand at the south entrance to the Haupt
Garden along Independence Avenue. The perimeter of the parterre is defined by hooped iron wickets and
a granite curb. Various garden ornaments, including urns and a sundial (not original), as well as signage
are placed within niches along the short and long sides of the parterre. The Renwick Gates are a pair of
decorative wrought-iron carriage gates set in four sandstone pillars that were fabricated and installed as
part of the development of the Haupt Garden. The design of the gates was adapted from an unrealized
1849 design by James Renwick, Jr., the architect of the Smithsonian Institution Building, for the south
8 The garden was named after Enid Annenberg Haupt (1906-2005) the American publisher, philanthropist, and
garden enthusiast who donated the funds for the project’s development.
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entrance to the Smithsonian grounds.9 They were constructed in 1987 from red sandstone salvaged from a
late nineteenth-century jail that once overlooked the Anacostia River before it was demolished in the
early 1980s. The sandstone used to build the jail came from a quarry in Seneca, Maryland, and was the
same material used for the construction of the Castle.10 The parterre is surrounded by brick paving (not
original) with granite edging. Rows of saucer magnolias planted within the lawn panels along either side
of the parterre frame the space and define the visual corridor from the Renwick Gates to the south
entrance of the Smithsonian Institution Building. (Several of the magnolias along the double row have
been lost due to shallow soil conditions.)
East of the central parterre is the Fountain Garden, which forms the setting of the entrance pavilion to the
National Museum of African Art. Inspired by traditional Persian gardens, the Fountain Garden uses water
as its primary design element.11 It features an octagonal brick plaza with a single fountain jet at its center.
Four low granite walls surround the plaza. Along the top surface of each wall segment is a runnel
connecting two shallow bowls at each end. Within each bowl is a single miniature fountain jet. Water
traveling along the runnels from each bowl collects in a small basin at the bottom of a niche cut into the
center of each wall segment. At the north edge of the plaza is a chadar, a form of man-made waterfall or
cascade often used in Persian gardens. (See Figure 21.) The chadar features a tiled inclined slab (the tile
is not original) set within a granite frame. A thin sheet of water flows over the slab and collects in a
shallow rectangular pool at its base. At the east, south, and west edges of the octagonal plaza are seating
areas paved with brick and defined by low granite walls. The top surface of the end of each wall features
a shallow bowl carved into the granite with a single fountain jet at the center. The east-west axis of the
Fountain Garden is aligned with the west entrance of the Arts and Industries Building. Tall hedges in the
earthen banks surrounding the plaza and behind the chadar enclose the space. The entrance paths leading
into the garden from the east and west are lined with pairs of saucer magnolias. (The easternmost
magnolia along the south side of the path leading to the Arts and Industries Building is no longer extant.)
In the western half of the Haupt Garden is the Moongate Garden, which forms the setting of the entrance
pavilion to the Sackler Gallery. Inspired by Chinese gardens, the Moongate Garden features circles and
squares, traditional symbolic forms representing, respectively, heaven and earth.12 The principal materials
of the garden are water and stone. At the center of the garden is a shallow square pool with a circular
granite island. Four granite bridges, placed in alignment with the four cardinal points, cross the pool to the
island. A footpath paved in brick with granite edging surrounds the pool. At the northwest and southeast
entrances to the garden are massive carved blocks of granite set together in pairs to form circular
passageways or “moon doors” (di xue). (See Figure 22.) The outside surfaces of the moon doors are
roughly finished, while the curved interior surfaces are polished. Moon doors are traditional architectural
elements in Chinese garden design. In the northeast and southwest corners of the garden, the moon doors
are laid flat against the earth rather than standing upright. They are surrounded by low shrubs. At the
northwest and southeast entrances to the Moongate Garden are rectangular seating areas laid with brick.
9 An engraving of the gates appears in Robert Dale Owen’s Hints on Public Architecture, which was published in
1849. See Owen, Hints on Public Architecture: Containing, Among other Illustrations, Views and Plans of the
Smithsonian Institution (New York: G.P Putnam, 1849): 109.
10 Smithsonian Institution Archives, “Renwick Gates in the Enid Haupt Garden,” available at
http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_10078, accessed December 16, 2014, and James M. Goode, Capital
Losses, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2003): 345.
11 Persian garden philosophy and style influenced the design of gardens in North Africa, Andalusia, and beyond. The
Fountain Garden is modeled after the legendary Court of the Lions at the Alhambra, a fourteenth-century Moorish
palace in Granada, Spain.
12 The Moongate Garden was inspired by the architectural and symbolic elements found in the Temple of Heaven,
which was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Beijing, China.
The footpaths between the seating areas and the moon doors are laid with granite pavers and
cobblestones. The entrance paths are flanked by pairs of saucer magnolias. Other trees in the Moongate
Garden include a weeping Japanese cherry and a weeping beech. The earthen bank along the north edge
of the garden is planted with liriope.
Near the northeast corner of the Haupt Garden is the Downing Urn (1856), which is set within a circular
planted bed surrounded by a brick patio.13 (See Figure 23.) The lawn surrounding the urn is planted with a
ring of three little-leaf linden trees. The 4-foot-high marble urn was designed by architect and landscape
designer Calvert Vaux (1824-1895) and sculpted by Robert E. Launitz to commemorate the pioneering
landscape gardener, horticulturalist, and author Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852). It rests on an
inscribed marble pedestal. Another prominent feature of the Haupt Garden is the bronze sculpture located
in the brick plaza outside the west entrance of the Arts and Industries Building. The sculpture, titled
Spencer Baird (1978), is the work of artist Leonard Baskin (1922-2000). It depicts Spencer Fullerton
Baird (1823-87), who during his tenure as the second secretary of the Smithsonian Institution oversaw the
construction of the Arts and Industries Building.
Figure 20: View across the Haupt Garden’s central parterre, looking northeast.
13 The Downing Urn is owned by the National Park Service and maintained by the Smithsonian Institution.
Figure 21: Fountain Garden. Figure 22: Moongate Garden.
Figure 23: Downing Urn. Figure 24: Enclosed stairwell.
Within the Haupt Garden are several structures associated with the Quadrangle’s substructure, including
six skylights, eight enclosed stairwells, and a vehicular ramp. The skylights provide natural light to the
underground levels of the Quadrangle, and the stairwells provide a means of egress. Two of the skylights
are located south of the entrance pavilions to the Sackler Gallery and the National Museum of African Art
along either side of the Renwick Gates. They measure 117 feet long by 8 feet wide, and at the east and
west ends of the skylights are stairwells. Each of these structures is faced in granite, and their south
façades form perimeter walls along Independence Avenue. Two pairs of 10-foot-square skylights are
located in the lawn panels on either side of the northern end of the central parterre, and two stairwells are
located to the east and west of the brick pavement surrounding the south end of the central parterre. These
structures have granite walls and are screened from view with vegetation. Within the lawn along the south
façade of the Smithsonian Institution Building are two additional enclosed stairwells. These structures are
clad in red sandstone, the same material used to construct the Castle and the Renwick Gates. (See Figure
24.) They feature standing-seam copper gable roofs. The vehicular ramp is located along the western edge
of the site with access from Independence Avenue. It is covered with a steel lattice structure.
In addition to the vegetation surrounding the component gardens and described above, plant materials
within the Haupt Garden include flowering ornamentals, herbaceous borders, and large shade trees. (For a
list of remaining original plant materials see the Key Features section below.) In the lawn along the south
façade of the Smithsonian Institution Building there are American hollies, two ginkgo trees, and a
monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana). Along the north façades of the museum pavilions are rows of
katsura trees. Additional tree species include Chinese evergreen oak, southern magnolia, saucer magnolia,
19
paperbark maple, and silverbell. Other plant materials found in the garden include blue milkweed, yew,
and Japanese fatsia.
Circulation features of the Haupt Garden include wide brick footpaths laid in a herringbone pattern with
gray granite curbs and narrower footpaths leading to the Fountain Garden and the Moongate Garden. The
brick footpaths along the eastern and western edges of the site feature alcoves for seating and for the
seasonal display of potted plants. Small-scale features include benches in a wide variety of materials and
styles, such as wood Lutyens benches, wood slat benches, and cast-iron settees and chairs. Other small-
scale features include planting pots and cast-iron urns, single-globe lampposts, signage, and trash
receptacles. Views within the Haupt Garden include the view looking north from the Renwick Gates of
the south façade of the Smithsonian Institution Building and the reciprocal view from the south entrance
of the Castle down the 10th Street axis; the view looking east from the Fountain Garden to the west façade
of the Arts and Industries Building; periodic views from the footpaths within the Haupt Garden of the
Mall, the Freer Gallery of Art, and the Arts and Industries Building; periodic views from the footpaths
within the Haupt Garden of the entrance pavilions to the Quadrangle Complex; and the sweeping view of
the Mall and the Washington Monument from the entrance to the Ripley Center.
20
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Early Development of the City of Washington
On July 16, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, officially titled “An Act for Establishing the
Temporary and Permanent Seat of the Government of the United States,” which authorized President
George Washington to select the site of the first permanent capital of the United States. In January of the
following year, Washington announced his choice – a diamond-shaped tract measuring 10 miles square
located at the convergence of the Potomac River and its Eastern Branch (Anacostia River).14 Washington
also appointed Peter (Pierre) Charles L’Enfant, a French artist and engineer, as the architect of the new
capital. L’Enfant’s Plan of the City Intended for the Permanent Seat of the Government of t[he] United
States consisted of an orthogonal street grid superimposed over an array of radiating diagonal avenues,
ceremonial parks, and greenswards. Principal buildings, monuments, and parks were assigned to
prominent topographic points, granting them “the most advantageous ground, commanding the most
extensive prospects.”15 L’Enfant created intentional vistas along the avenues and streets that allowed for
reciprocal views between major buildings and sites.
In 1792, the government purchased a total of 541 acres for federal building sites and divided this land into
seventeen parcels. These original appropriations were described by location and function in a note
accompanying surveyor Andrew Ellicott’s engraving of the L’Enfant plan and were depicted graphically
in a map prepared by James R. Dermott in 1795-97. Original Appropriation No. 1 was set aside as the site
for the “President’s Palace.” What is now the Mall, from the U.S. Capitol Grounds on the east to 14th
Street on the west, was part of Original Appropriation 2.16 The Mall was envisioned by L’Enfant as a
grand boulevard visually connecting the Capitol with the grounds set aside for an equestrian monument to
Washington.
Throughout the early nineteenth century, Washington’s growth was slow. The development of public land
was hindered by a lack of funds, and property was lost to private interests. Efforts to improve the
landscape of the city during this period focused on the grounds surrounding the President’s House and the
Capitol. Only modest attempts were made at grading and paving the streets.17 Instead of being improved
as a single landscape, the commons spreading west from the Capitol was divided into several tracts by the
crossings of 6th, 7th, 12th, and 14th streets. Due in part to the stagnant condition of the Washington City
Canal, which ran along the north side of the Mall, these tracts were generally seen as undesirable and
received little attention. This began to change by the mid-nineteenth century with the construction of the
Smithsonian Institution Building along the south side of the Mall.
14 The tract consisted of 64 square miles ceded from Maryland and 36 square miles from Virginia. Iris Miller,
Washington in Maps, 1606-2000 (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2002): 48.
15 Ibid., 38. Miller provides a transcription of L’Enfant’s notes “Observations explanatory of the Plan.”
16 The Mall was later divided into Reservation Nos. 3-6A. The Smithsonian Quadrangle is located within
Reservation No. 3, a contributing element to the L’Enfant Plan of the City of Washington, District of Columbia,
which was listed in the National Register in 1997. See Sara Amy Leach and Elizabeth Barthold, National Register of
Historic Places Registration Form, “L’Enfant Plan of the City of Washington, D.C.,” April 24, 1997.
17 Robinson & Associates, Draft National Historic Landmark nomination titled “The Plan of the City of
Washington,” January 4, 2001, which updates and amends Sara Amy Leach and Elizabeth Barthold, National
Register of Historic Places Registration Form, “L’Enfant Plan of the City of Washington, D.C.,” 1997 (on file at the
D.C. Historic Preservation Office): 58-59.
The Smithsonian Institution Building and the Genesis of the South Yard
In 1838, a bequest of over half a million dollars from the estate of Englishman James Smithson was
brought to the United States to establish an institution of learning in the federal capital. The Smithsonian
Institution was authorized by an act of Congress dated August 10, 1846. Its Board of Regents rapidly
selected a site on the Mall and an architect – James Renwick, Jr. (1818-1895). Renwick’s Medieval
Revival-style building, which has come to be known as the “Castle,” was constructed between 1847 and
1855.18
The design for the Castle was a departure from the classically inspired public buildings that populated
Washington at the time. Instead, its style evoked English collegiate architecture, considered an
appropriate reference for an educational institution such as the Smithsonian. The building was constructed
of rusticated red sandstone quarried from Seneca, Maryland. Overall, it featured a balanced composition
of irregularly shaped forms, including an assemblage of architecturally diverse towers. At the time of its
construction, the Castle accommodated all of the Smithsonian’s assorted functions, combining a museum,
library, laboratories, art gallery, and lecture hall. In its early years, the Castle also served as living
quarters for the Smithsonian’s first secretary, Joseph Henry (1797-1878).
With the construction of the Smithsonian Institution Building underway, the Mall had become the focus
of efforts to improve the city. In October 1851, a group of influential city leaders, including Secretary
Henry, approached President Millard Fillmore with the idea of landscaping the Mall. The president asked
Andrew Jackson Downing, the country’s pre-eminent theoretician of landscape design in the first half of
the nineteenth century, to develop a plan for the Mall. Downing’s plan was strikingly different from the
Baroque and Neoclassical principles that guided L’Enfant. It consisted of a series of six compatible
“scenes,” exemplifying various garden types.19 The “Smithsonian Pleasure Grounds” between 7th and 12th
streets were planted according to Downing’s picturesque style with a variety of trees and shrubs set
closely together “to give greater seclusion and beauty to its immediate precincts.”20 The grounds around
the Smithsonian Institution Building and the White House were the only elements of Downing’s plan that
were carried out before his death in 1852. His collaborator, Calvert Vaux, designed an urn dedicated to
Downing’s memory, which was installed on the Smithsonian grounds in 1856. The improvements made
in the 1850s following Downing’s plan mainly addressed the landscape north of the Castle. Photographs
from the 1850s and 1860s indicate that the Smithsonian grounds were sparsely planted on the south. (See
Figure 25.) Early features of the south grounds included a picket fence and a small shed in the southeast
corner of the lot.
By the 1870s, the Smithsonian Institution had considerably outgrown the Castle. Additional space was
critically needed to properly care for and exhibit its growing collections and to allow for the acquisition of
the international and domestic exhibits donated to the United States following the 1876 Centennial
Exhibition in Philadelphia. For a time, the Smithsonian considered building an addition to the Castle, but
this idea was quickly disregarded, and an entirely separate museum was conceived and developed. The
Smithsonian chose architect Adolf Cluss (1825-1905), a German-born American immigrant with the firm
of Cluss & Schulze, to design the building, which was built on a site adjacent to the Castle on the east.
18 The Smithsonian Institution Building was listed in the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites on November 8, 1964. It
was made a National Historic Landmark on January 12, 1965, and listed in the National Register on October 15,
1966.
19 Therese O’Malley, “‘A Public Museum of Trees’: Mid-Nineteenth Century Plans for the Mall,” in The Mall in
Washington, 1791-1991 (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1991): 66-68.
20 Ibid.
The U.S. National Museum (now the Arts and Industries Building) was constructed between 1879 and
1881.21
Soon after the construction of the Arts and Industries Building, the grounds south of the Smithsonian
Institution Building were pressed into utilitarian service.22 Smithsonian records indicate that part of the
landscape, which became known as the south yard, was paved with asphalt as early as 1883. By 1890, the
main building of the Smithsonian’s Astro-Physical Observatory was constructed in the south yard. A
series of expansions and improvements to the observatory occurred over the next several decades,
including the construction of various sheds and annexes. By 1915, the facility, which had been
surrounded by a fence to form a small compound, measured 16,000 square feet.23 In addition to the
observatory, the south yard was occupied by a succession of buildings, including a two-and-a-half story
wood shed, which became the primary location of the Smithsonian’s taxidermist shop. The construction
of the Freer Gallery of Art on a site directly west of the south yard began in 1916. The Freer Gallery of
Art was designed by architect and landscape designer Charles A. Platt (1861-1933). Due to delays caused
by the United States’ involvement in World War I, the museum did not open until 1923.24
In 1917, the War Department erected a single-story metal structure measuring approximately 70 feet by
260 feet in the southeast corner of the south yard. (See Figure 26.) It was built on a concrete slab and was
initially used for the maintenance and repair of aircraft engines during World War I. After the war, the
structure was transferred to the Smithsonian, which adapted it for the display of aircraft. The exhibition
space, initially called the Aircraft Building, opened to the public in 1920. When the National Air Museum
was created in 1946, it occupied the building until a permanent museum was built.25 Historic photographs
of the area also indicate that part of the south yard was once used as a tennis court.
21 By 1917, the National Museum was officially referred to as the Arts and Industries Building, reflecting the
emphasis of its collections on the industrial arts, technology, and American history. The Arts and Industries Building
was listed in the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites on November 8, 1964. It was made a National Historic Landmark
and listed in the National Register on November 11, 1971.
22 Carole Ottesen, A Guide to Smithsonian Gardens (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2011): 29.
23 Bruce D. Smith, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, “The History of the South
Quadrangle, Smithsonian Institution,” February 1981, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 86-086,
Smithsonian Institution, Office of Facilities Services, Records, Box 4, hereafter shortened to SIA, Acc. 86-086, Box
4.
24 The Freer Gallery of Art was listed in the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites on November 8, 1964, and in the
National Register on June 23, 1969.
25 Bruce D. Smith, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, “The History of the South
Quadrangle, Smithsonian Institution,” February 1981, SIA, Acc. 86-086, Box 4.
Figure 25: South façade of the Smithsonian Institution Building, 1858. [Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 30, Folder 7, Local Number 63881 or MAH-36881.]
Figure 26: Aerial photo of the south yard, 1932. [Smithsonian Institution Archives, Acc. 86-086, Box 3]
24
Development of the Quadrangle Concept and South Yard Bicentennial Improvements
S. Dillon Ripley (1913-2001) became the eighth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1964 and
directed a period of intense institutional growth, which included the development of eight new museums
and five new research facilities. Among his plans during the first few years of his tenure was the
redevelopment of the south yard. This began in April 1966, when James C. Bradley, Assistant Secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution under Secretary Ripley, sent a proposal to the General Services
Administration’s Public Buildings Service, which had responsibility for constructing Smithsonian
facilities at the time. The proposal outlined several new projects including a two-story underground
parking garage to the rear of the Smithsonian Institution Building and a garden in the south yard that
would serve as a terminus for the 10th Street Mall (later renamed the L’Enfant Promenade).26 Around the
same time, Ripley was exploring the feasibility of an underground addition to the Freer Gallery of Art.27
Over the years, Ripley’s vision for the south yard continued to evolve. By 1969, in an internal
Smithsonian memo, he expressed the idea of transforming the south yard into a collegiate “quadrangle”
through the construction of a building along Independence Avenue that would enclose the space created
by the Freer, the Castle, and the Arts and Industries Building.28 Soon after, the proposed Freer extension
was being reconsidered within this context.
By 1974, however, no progress to advance the quadrangle concept had been made. Instead, with the U.S.
Bicentennial approaching, the Smithsonian shifted its focus toward temporary improvements that would
“provide a meaningful contribution to the Bicentennial ambiance…for visitors to the Mall during the ’76
season.”29 A summary from the environmental study prepared as part of the proposed improvement
project described conditions within the south yard at the time: “The Yard in its current mode serves many
diverse uses including: parking for visitors, students, and employees, storage, exhibit space, mammal
preparation, greenhouse, rest area, and pedestrian thoroughfare….”30 The report also itemized existing
buildings, which included a two-story shed with a taxidermy shop, an electric shop, storage areas, and
classroom space; a one-story metal structure used as an exhibition space by the National Air and Space
Museum; and a greenhouse with associated office space.
Dan Kiley and Partners
The landscape architecture firm Dan Kiley and Partners prepared a plan for the bicentennial
improvements. (See Figure 27 and Figure 28.) In a statement accompanying the plan, the firm described
the concept, writing: “The detail of the garden will reflect its uncertain future. Simple, sometimes
temporary materials will be used where this is appropriate or expedient. The gentle, grass-covered berms,
the meandering paths, the lily ponds, and the restored fountain will create an atmosphere which is
suffused at once with a natural imagery that does not require expensive material to sustain it. Superb
existing trees will be retained and supplemented by new plantings. Along Independence Avenue a
wrought-iron fence will protect the garden from the street; this is punctured on the axis of the original
Institution building by gates designed by J. Renwick, Jr. but never built.”31 With input from the
26 Quadrangle Chronology, no author, no date, SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 42.
27 Dean Anderson, “Chronology of Development Plans for South Yard,” April 1982, SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 45.
28 Quadrangle Chronology, no author, no date, SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 42 and Dean Anderson, “Chronology of
Development Plans for South Yard,” April 1982, SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 45.
29 Letter and attachments from Phillip K. Reiss, Director, Office of Facilities Planning and Engineering Services, to
Charles Atherton, Executive Secretary, Fine Arts Commission, February 10, 1975, SIA, Acc. 86-086, Box 3.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid. Note that the “restored fountain” described in the quote referred to a cast-iron fountain in the Smithsonian’s
collection at the time and not to an existing site feature.
Smithsonian’s Horticultural Services Division, Kiley’s south yard redevelopment plan included a planted
bed based on the embroidery parterre designs used at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Fairmont Park,
Philadelphia. The National Capital Planning Commission approved the proposed plan as a temporary
measure for the bicentennial pending a long-range plan for permanent development. Demolition started in
the fall of 1975, and the project was complete the following summer. The as-built design differed from
the conceptual plan in several key ways. A surface parking lot was constructed in the western half of the
yard, replacing the proposed conservatory, the parterre was shifted on axis with 10th Street, and the
fountain proposed for the eastern half of the site was never realized. (See Figure 29.)
Figure 27: South Yard Development Location Plan, Dan Kiley & Partners, ca. 1975, showing the south yard project
in the context of 10th Street. [Smithsonian Institution Archives, Acc. 06-225, Oversize Folders]
26
Figure 28: Detail from South Yard Development Location Plan, Dan Kiley & Partners, ca. 1975. The as-built
design differed from this conceptual plan in several ways. [Smithsonian Institution Archives, Acc. 06-225, Oversize
Folders]
Figure 29: View of the Victorian parterre completed in 1976 as part of the south yard bicentennial redevelopment
by Dan Kiley & Partners. [Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 31, Folder 21, Negative No. 76
15440-3.]
27
Design and Construction of the Smithsonian Quadrangle
Early Concepts
With the U.S. Bicentennial improvements in place, the Smithsonian engaged the architectural firm Wilkes
and Faulkner Associates to develop a preliminary building program and site evaluation for the south yard
that would advance Ripley’s college quadrangle concept. The report, finalized in March 1977, proposed
two aboveground buildings along Independence Avenue and underground space for the Freer Gallery
expansion and other needs. The next year, while Secretary Ripley was traveling in Asia, he personally
approached Japanese architect Junzo Yoshimura (see text below on the design team) to discuss the south
yard project. In Ripley’s view, Yoshimura’s skills at representing traditional Japanese sensibilities with a
modernist aesthetic and integrating buildings within their landscape were well suited to the environmental
limitations of the south yard.32 Yoshimura agreed to prepare a concept study, which was finalized in
September 1978 and presented to the National Capital Planning Commission that November. The
commission’s initial reaction to the concept was focused on the aboveground structures. In a letter to
Yoshimura dated December 19, 1978, Ripley reported, “…one suggestion of Mr. [David] Childs is
extremely pertinent I believe, namely, that both buildings should be considered as garden ornaments. That
is to say both buildings should be light and airy in construction and feeling, and should represent the same
relationship to the garden that a large ornamental sculpture or structure would. Thus they would be part of
the garden, and they would enhance the garden in its feeling and mood.”33
Planning continued through the spring of 1979. That March, E. Verner Johnson of Boston, an architecture
firm specializing in museum planning and design, prepared a space allocation survey for the Quadrangle
project that incorporated programming for the National Museum of African Art, which had been
transferred to the Smithsonian Institution by public law dated October 5, 1978.34 In April, the
Smithsonian received Yoshimura’s revised concept study that took into consideration the Verner Johnson
survey. “The design objective is to develop the site into a jewel-like garden in the monumental core of
Washington, incorporating two small above-grade structures,” read the report.35 The 1979 concept study
included several key components that would carry forward throughout the design of the Quadrangle: two
flanking museum entrance pavilions, three underground levels, an existing linden tree, and the Renwick
Gates. (See Figure 30 and Figure 31.) In addition, the Quadrangle project would incorporate a central
parterre bed due to the popularity of the Victorian parterre created for the site for the bicentennial. Design
changes would ultimately remove the underground parking planned for the third sublevel, the east
entrance ramp, and the light wells/sunken gardens from Yoshimura’s plan. In addition, the scale and
design of the entrance pavilions would change significantly. A key milestone in the development of the
Quadrangle project occurred in July 1979, when Congress passed a bill authorizing an appropriation of
$500,000 to plan the project.
32 EHT Traceries, Inc. and Surfacedesign, Inc., “South Mall Campus Cultural Landscape Report,” 95% Draft dated
June 2015, prepared for the Smithsonian Institution, 112. Ripley’s choice may also have been influenced by his
desire to strengthen the Smithsonian’s connections in Asia and solicit funds.
33 Letter from Ripley to Yoshimura, December 19, 1978, SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 45.
34 The National Museum of African Art (originally the Museum of African Art) was founded in 1964. Prior to its
move to the National Mall with the opening of the Quadrangle, the museum was located on Capitol Hill.
35 Junzo Yoshimura, “The Smithsonian Institution South Garden Development Concept Study, April 1979,” 3, SIA,
Acc. 06-225, Box 42.
Figure 30: Detail from “The Smithsonian Institution South Garden Development Concept Study, April 1979,” Junzo Yoshimura, Architect. [Smithsonian Institution Archives, Acc. 06-225, Box 45]
Figure 31: Detail from “The Smithsonian Institution South Garden Development Concept Study, April 1979,” Junzo Yoshimura, Architect. [Smithsonian Institution Archives, Acc. 06-225, Box 45]
29
Figure 32: Detail of a photograph of a model for the Smithsonian Quadrangle reproduced in a 1980 development
brochure. [Smithsonian Institution Archives, Acc. 06-225, Box 42]
Final Concept by Jean Paul Carlhian of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott
In December 1979, Phillip K. Reiss, the director of the Smithsonian’s Office of Facilities Planning and
Engineering Services, notified Yoshimura that government contracting processes required a U.S. firm to
“develop a more definitive statement of the Quadrangle for presentation to the Commission of Fine Arts,
the National Capital Planning Commission and the Congress.”36 Thus, in early 1980, as part of a quietly
held public competition, the Smithsonian distributed Yoshimura’s concept study to seven architectural
firms to solicit proposals for finalizing and securing approval of the conceptual schematic design plans for
the Quadrangle project.37 The firm that was selected was Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott (see
text below on the design team). Guided by Yoshimura’s conceptual framework, the Shepley, Bulfinch,
Richardson and Abbott team, led by design principal Jean Paul Carlhian, was initially tasked with
defining the concept in terms of structure, amplifying selected features, and translating the concept into
construction documents.38 Over the next three years, however, as the project was advanced toward final
approval, Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott had a greater hand in the design of the Quadrangle,
as substantial changes were made to meet the requirements of the Smithsonian as well as the various
committees and commissions that had approval authority over its development.
36 Chronology with notation “As given to Verner Johnson, April 1980,” author unspecified, SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box
42.
37 EHT Traceries, Inc. and Surfacedesign, Inc., “South Mall Campus Cultural Landscape Report,” 95% Draft dated
June 2015, prepared for the Smithsonian Institution, 114.
38 Letter with Work Statement attachment from Phillip K. Reiss, Office Design and Construction, to Richard Potter,
Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, July 7, 1980, in research materials provided by the Smithsonian
Institution, Office of Architectural History and Historic Preservation.
In October 1980, after reviewing the Smithsonian’s conceptual plans for the Quadrangle project, the Joint
Committee on Landmarks of the National Capital (now the Historic Preservation Review Board) issued a
report that determined the project would have an adverse effect the National Mall, the Smithsonian
Institution Building, the Arts and Industries Building, and the Freer Gallery of Art through the
introduction of “alien architectural elements which will alter and diminish the integrity of the setting of
the Landmark buildings, and their relationship to each other and to the Mall.”39 The landmarks committee
also opposed the proposed light wells north of the museum pavilions, stating that they would be a
contradictory element in the concept of a landscape setting for the Castle, and took issue with the design
of the pavilions. “No matter how small [the pavilions] become they will not be small enough to appear as
garden structures in the picturesque sense without losing all purpose for their being,” the report
concluded.40 The Committee of 100 on the Federal City also issued a statement on the proposed
development. It objected to the pavilions for reasons of incompatibility and advocated for maintaining the
historic openness of the south yard. “There is no historic dictate to enclose the Quadrangle with additional
buildings,” the statement read.41 The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation raised objections to the
project due to the potential impact of the proposed development on surrounding buildings. The Advisory
Council, however, agreed to withdraw their objections if certain conditions were met. These included
relocating the garage ramp to the west side of the site and restudying the design of the pavilions to reduce
their perceived height and scale and their impact on the setting of the Smithsonian Institution Building
and the Arts and Industries Building, among other items.42 Review by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts
and the National Capital Planning Commission also guided the development of several key aspects of the
design. For example, as part of the review process, the Smithsonian team was urged to avoid overly
symbolic or referential designs for the pavilions that could be perceived as evoking a “world’s fair”
atmosphere on the Mall. As a result, Carlhian revised the style of the pavilions to be “less specifically
ethnic, more classical.”43 Also, to meet Secretary Ripley’s concern that the pavilions present an
“appropriately dignified” presence in order to attract private funding for construction, the structures were
scaled up and granite was used as the building material.
With the passage of Public Law 97-203 on June 24, 1982, Congress approved the construction of the
Smithsonian Quadrangle, and later that year Congress appropriated funding for the project. In September
1982, the Smithsonian received a major gift from Arthur M. Sackler, a psychiatrist and philanthropist,
that included funding for construction and an extensive collection of Asian art. The Quadrangle’s Asian
art gallery was named after Sackler in recognition of his donation. Funding for the gallery was also
provided by the Japanese government.
Construction
The ground-breaking ceremony for the Smithsonian Quadrangle took place on June 21, 1983, and
construction began the following month. The Quadrangle was built using slurry (or diaphragm) walls, a
structural system of below-grade walls that form a cutoff barrier to restrict groundwater flow and support
39 Joint Committee on Landmarks of the National Capital, Report of the Joint Committee on Landmarks, October
23, 1980, in research materials provided by the Smithsonian Institution, Office of Architectural History and Historic
Preservation.
40 Ibid.
41 Letter from Marion K. Schlefer, Committee of 100 on the Federal City, to Jerry R. Shipplett, Acting Chief,
Facilities Planning and Environmental Branch, GSA-NCR, October 17, 1980, in research materials provided by the
Smithsonian Institution, Office of Architectural History and Historic Preservation.
42 Letter from Thomas F. King, ACHP, to Andrea Mones, GSA, April 2, 1981, SIA, Acc. 86-086, Box 4.
43 Reprint of Mary Ann Tighe, “The Quadrangle Comes Full Circle,” Northwest Orient (March 1984): 41-51, SIA,
Acc. 06-225, Box 42.
excavations and structures. European contractors began using slurry walls in the 1950s for the
construction of underground reinforced concrete structural wall systems.44 By the 1960s, the technique
was brought to the United States. The first major project constructed in the United States using this
system was the World Trade Center (1967-69).
During construction, the Smithsonian requested several changes to the design in response to the
recommendations of the museum directors. These included the elimination of the coffered ceilings in the
exhibition galleries “to achieve a flat ceiling that would permit a more versatile lighting and design
scheme,” the removal of “all windows that overlook the large central exhibition gallery shared by the two
museums,” and the elimination all colored-glass windows and the mirrors in stairwell niches.45 The
museum staff also took issue with the number and location of skylights in the design due to concerns with
natural light in the galleries. After meeting with museum staff, including exhibition designers, lighting
consultants, and others, Carlhian conceded some points, but not all, and urged that the skylights be
completed as originally conceived.46 By autumn 1985, the building’s roof was in place and topped with
drainage gravel and top soil. Ten little-leaf linden trees and fourteen magnolia trees were planted. In
October 1986, construction was complete on the third sublevel, and the offices there were occupied.47 The
Haupt Garden was inaugurated in May 1987, and on September 28, 1987, the Smithsonian Quadrangle
was opened.
44 Wolfgang G. Brunner, “Development of Slurry Wall Technique and Slurry Wall Construction Equipment,” in
GeoSupport 2004: Drilled Shafts, Micropiling, Deep Mixing, Remedial Methods, and Specialty Foundation Systems,
eds. John P. Turner and Paul W. Mayne (Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers, 2004).
45 Memo from Sylvia Williams and Tom Lawton to Tom Peyton, April 15, 1985, SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 42.
Carlhian’s original design called for amber tinted glass in the south window of the Sackler Gallery pavilion and blue
tinted glass in the south window of the National Museum of African Art pavilion. In response to the request by
museum staff, the amber tinted glass was not installed in the Sackler Gallery pavilion. As a result, only the National
Museum of African Art pavilion featured a tinted-glass window (blue) on the south façade. See Park and Carlhian, A
New View from the Castle, 145, 155.
46 Letter from Carlhian to Frank Gilmore, May 15, 1985, SIA, Acc. 06-225, Box 42.
47 Ibid.
Figure 33: View across the Smithsonian Quadrangle looking northwest during construction, ca. 1985. [Smithsonian
Institution Archives, Acc. 06-225 Box 45.]
As-Built Design
The result was a multipurpose facility spread across three underground levels with three aboveground
pavilions and additional secondary support structures placed within a garden landscape. (See Figure 34
through Figure 36.) By placing the majority of the complex underground and locating the entrance
pavilions at the edges of the site, the intent of the design was to create an enclosed “quadrangle” south of
the Smithsonian Institution Building containing an intimate public garden. The one-story museum
pavilions created a barrier along Independence Avenue, while the circular entrance pavilion to the Ripley
Center enclosed the space along the northwest edge. Structures within the site were arranged to block
views from the quadrangle of the Forrestal Building, which was considered highly intrusive, enhance the
view and emphasize the axis along 10th Street, and highlight the view of the west entrance to the Arts and
Industries Building.
The design of the Haupt Garden was a collaborative effort between Sasaki Associates and Shepley,
Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott.48 While Sasaki Associates was the landscape architect of record,
Carlhian’s firm was responsible for most of the hardscape detailing, such as the designs for the Moongate
Garden and the Fountain Garden.49 The landscape featured formal and informal design elements and a
variety of plant materials. Orthogonal rows of magnolia trees flanked the entrance paths along the central
parterre and the paths leading to the thematic gardens. In contrast, the trees in the lawn south of the Castle
were more naturalistically placed and the path south of the Castle featured a gentle curve, which allowed
for broad swath of greenspace immediately south of the historic building. The Sasaki Associates/Shepley,
48 Carlhian and Hideo Sasaki were colleagues at Harvard, and the two firms had worked together on previous
projects, including Harvard’s Leverett House.
49 EHT Traceries, “Sasaki (Dawson) Interview,” informational interview on the Haupt Garden/Quadrangle design
process and the Freer rehabilitation, email from Bill Marzella, EHT Traceries, to Sharon Park and William
Donnelly, Smithsonian Institution, April 18, 2016. The planting plan is on a drawing sheet with both Sasaki
Associates and Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott on the title block.
Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott design team consulted with landscape architect Lester Collins and the
Smithsonian’s Office of Horticulture on the selection of plant materials. The choice of materials for the
Fountain and Moongate Gardens was dictated in part by what would be appropriate for Asian and African
gardens. Other considerations, such as the site’s shallow soil depth and Washington’s summer heat, also
guided the selection of plant materials. Vegetation was used to camouflage the intrusive nature of the
skylights, the stairwell structures, and the entrance to the loading dock and to soften the edge of the
austere east façade of the Freer Gallery.
Figure 34: Site plan for the Smithsonian Quadrangle. [Smithsonian Institution Archives, Acc. 06-225, Box 41]
Figure 35: Architectural rendering of the Smithsonian Quadrangle in section. [A Guide to Smithsonian Architecture]
34
Figure 36: View of the Smithsonian Quadrangle, September 1987. [Smithsonian Institution Archive, 87-10129-2,
siarchives.si.edu]
The Smithsonian Quadrangle design and construction team included Junzo Yoshimura (Concept
Architect); Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, Boston, Massachusetts (Architects) with design
principal Jean Paul Carlhian; Sasaki Associates, Watertown, Massachusetts (Landscape Architects);
Shooshanian Engineering Associates, Boston, Massachusetts (Mechanical and Electrical Engineers);
Ewell W. Finley, P.C. (EWF), Washington, D.C. (Structural Engineer); and Blake Construction
Company, Washington, D.C. (Contractor). In addition, Smithsonian records indicate that landscape
architect Lester Collins consulted on the design of the Haupt Garden. Collins advised on the selection and
acquisition of plant materials and, on at least one occasion, presenting the landscape plans to the U.S.
Commission of Fine Arts on behalf of the design team.50 James R. Buckler of the Smithsonian’s Office of
Horticulture also had role in the landscape design, assisting with the selection of plant materials and
developing the furnishing plan.51
Junzo Yoshimura (1908-1997) was a Japanese architect trained in Tokyo. He was a protégé of
Antonin Raymond, who established a practice in Japan after moving to Tokyo to work on the
50 See Transcript, Meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts, September 14, 1982, Records of the Commission of Fine
Arts, Washington, D.C. Note that transcripts are not considered official records of the Commission of Fine Arts
meetings as they often contain transcription errors. Collins had a strong association with the Smithsonian, having
worked on the rehabilitation of the Hirshhorn sculpture garden, which was completed in 1981.
51 Documents in the Smithsonian Institution Archives indicate that the design of the Haupt Garden was a
collaborative effort. A pamphlet on the Haupt Garden (undated though likely produced for the opening of the
garden) reads: “The design of the garden was a collaborative effort between the principal architect, Jean Paul
Carlhian of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott; the landscape architectural firm of Sasaki and Associates,
Inc.; landscape architect Lester Collins; and James R. Buckler, Director of the Smithsonian’s Office of
Horticulture.” See Smithsonian Institution, Office of Horticulture, “Enid A. Haupt Garden,” Smithsonian Gardens,
Enid A. Haupt Garden, Clipping Files – SI Publicity.
construction of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel. In 1940, Yoshimura spent over a year
living and working in Raymond’s studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania. After returning to Japan, he
established his own firm. One of Yoshimura’s most well-known commissions in the United
States is the Japanese House, an exhibition house originally constructed in 1953 in the courtyard
of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After the MOMA exhibit closed, the house was
relocated and reconstructed in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park where it stands today. Yoshimura’s
later works in Tokyo include the Nara National Museum (1972) and the Norwegian Embassy
(1977).
A successor firm of the office of H. H. Richardson, Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott
(now Shepley Bulfinch) has a long and venerable history. The firm received significant
professional recognition during the 1970s. In 1973, the firm received the American Institute of
Architects Firm Award, the highest award given to an architecture firm by the association.52 In
addition, the firm had seven of its leading architects promoted to the American Institute of
Architects College of Fellows in recognition of their contributions to the field. The Quadrangle
project team at Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott included Jean Paul Carlhian, Design
Principal; Richard M. Potter, Principal-in-Charge; and Robert T. Holloran, Project Architect.
Jean-Paul Carlhian (1919-2012) was born and raised in Paris. After training at the École des
Beaux-Arts he moved to the United States to pursue a degree at Harvard’s Graduate School of
Design where he was a Wheelwright fellow. In 1950, Carlhian joined the long established Boston
architectural firm Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott (then Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch
and Abbott and now Shepley Bulfinch). Over the course of his career, Carlhian became one of the
firm’s leading architects. He was also on the staff at Harvard, where he taught a course with Josep
Sert and Hideo Sasaki on urban design.53 His projects included two residential towers at Harvard
University – the Leverett House (1961) and Mather House (1972). At Vassar, Carlhian designed
College Center (1975), a major addition to the college’s historic Main Building (1861-65).54
Along with the Smithsonian Quadrangle project, other public commissions included the Warren
B. Rudman United States Courthouse (1999) in Concord, New Hampshire. A fellow of the
American Institute of Architect, Carlhian played an active role in the organization, serving as
chairman of the national Committee on Design.
Hideo Sasaki and Associates (now Sasaki Associates) was founded by landscape architect Hideo
Sasaki (1919-2000) in 1953. Born in California, Sasaki was educated at Berkeley and the
University of Illinois. In 1948, he graduated from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design with a
Master of Landscape Architecture. In 1953, he made a final return to Harvard to teach and
practice, eventually becoming the chair of the department of landscape architecture, a position he
held from 1958 to 1968. By the early 1980s, when the Quadrangle project was being designed,
Sasaki was retired from full time practice.55 Both in his career and as an educator Sasaki valued a
52 Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Database, “Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott,” available at
https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/107684, accessed June 23, 2016. The award citation
noted that the firm’s alumni made the office “as much an institution as any of the handful of U.S. architectural
schools that are of comparable age.” See “AIA Awards,” New York Times, March 25, 1973.
53 Michael Larice and Elizabeth Macdonald, eds., The Urban Design Reader, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2013):
110.
54 The architect of the Main Building was James Renwick, Jr.
55 Melanie Simo, The Offices of Hideo Sasaki: A Corporate History (Berkeley, California: Spacemaker Press, 2001):
10-11, 86, and The Cultural Landscape Foundation, “Pioneer Information: Hideo Sasaki,” available at
http://tclf.org/pioneer/hideo-sasaki, accessed June 21, 2016.
comprehensive approach to planning and design that focused on the interaction of land, building,
and the greater environment. The firm carried on this legacy. Notable projects include the John
Deere and Company Headquarters (1964) in Moline, Illinois, and the Christian Science Center
(1975) in Boston.
Lester Collins (1914-1993) was an influential landscape architect of the modern era. He received
a master’s degree in architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and later, during
Gropius’ tenure, served as the head of the department of landscape architecture. In 1953, he
moved to Washington. His body of work was diverse, ranging from row house garden design to
town planning, and throughout his career he challenged traditional notions about landscape
design. In Washington, where he practiced for twenty-seven years, his body of work included
landscapes for the National Zoo, Georgetown University, Gallaudet University, and a renovation
of the sculpture garden at the Hirshhorn Museum.56
Postmodernism
The postmodern period in architecture and landscape architecture began as an academic movement in the
1960s when established theories on modern architecture and planning were giving way to a new wave of
critical thinking. Jane Jacobs’ early attack on modernist planning in Death and Life of Great American
Cities (1961) along with architect Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)
and Learning from Las Vegas (1972) by Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour were highly
influential.57 Venturi’s theoretical writings were rebellious in nature, stating at one time that less is not
more, but rather “less is a bore” – a direct contradiction of Mies van der Rohe’s early dictum.58 He is
credited with leading architectural theory toward postmodernism, which reached its maturity by the mid
1970s. The term postmodern (or post-modern) was given currency by theorist and designer Charles
Jencks to describe the philosophical and design shift when modernism’s emphasis on form and
functionalism, and its indifference to historical precepts and styles, were abandoned and the possibilities
of an anti-rational, pluralist aesthetic were promoted. Architects working in the style utilized this
pluralistic approach to simultaneously convey many meanings to the viewers and users of their buildings
and to established links between the present and the past. Jencks coined the term “d