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Smithsonian American Art Museum (Old Patent Office Building)

Smithsonian American Art Museum (Old Patent Office Building)

Photo: Smithsonian American Art Museum · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Penn Quarter, Washington, D.C., United States
Client / Owner
Smithsonian Institution
Year
Completed 2006
Access
Tickets required
Typology
Cultural

The Smithsonian American Art Museum occupies the Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C. The article names no architects and gives no original construction dates, materials or dimensions. Congress granted the building to the Smithsonian in 1958 for the National Collection of Fine Arts, to be shared with the planned National Portrait Gallery. Work began in 1964, and the collection opened there on May 6, 1968.

The article describes features restored in the 2000s, including Parthenon-inspired porticos, a curving double staircase, colonnades, vaulted galleries, large windows and skylights as long as a city block.

The building closed in January 2000 for a six-year, 283 million dollar renovation and reopened on July 1, 2006 as the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The infobox gives 1829 as the museum's founding year, while the history ties its origins to the Smithsonian's creation in 1846. The article gives no hours.

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