I would have thought Chicago or New York would be the place for this, but turns out the National Building Museum lives on one side of Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C. Buildings are everything; we live, work, and rest in them. They’re all around us. America used to be the world leader in civil engineering in the mid-20th century, but they’ve lost their podium to countries that continuously invest in their infrastructure.
There are a couple of small exhibitions in the ground floor, but the bulk of the content and the best view of the atrium is upstairs. There is a little panel exhibition on Montgomery C. Meigs, the army engineer who built the Capitol dome and other structures in the capital. But I think he deserves just a couple hundred words, perhaps a model or engineering drawing facsimiles would help fill up a gallery for him.
The structure of the museum itself is an architectural wonder. Eight massive corinthian columns hold up the roof of an airy atrium. The building is mostly empty space with a ribbon of rooms hanging around it. It feels like the Italian Renaissance was lodging inside a Queen Anne Revival building. It had been used for the annual presidential Christmas show for three decades, the host of many presidential balls, and a music hall at times. I think the museum is just the keep the lights on.
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