Sources

• Source
• Source
• Architecture Today by Charles Jencks and William Chaitkin

National Gallery of Art in DC

• West Building
  • pink tennessee marble
  • 1937 by John Russel Pope
  • Open 1941
  • Neoclassical style
  • Long H
  • Dome rotunda in the center (after Pantheon)
    • coffers
    • oculus
  • Extending east and west of the rotunda- high skylit sculpture halls
  • Four square, 90 degree angle forms
  • Pediment
  • Ionic columns
  • Wings: not very decorated, bold
  • Combination of modern and classical
  • Skylights
  • Minimally decorated
  • People disliked the classicism "pink marble whorehouse"
  • Houses pre-20th century art
• East Building
  • I.M. Pei
  • 1978
  • Geometrical
  • Difficulty: trapezoidal shape
    • Isosceles
    • Right Triangle
    • Split them in half to emphasize the separateness
      • Public functions
      • Study Center
  • Three towers were "beginning to emerge at the corners of the isosceles triangle, balancing the east/west axis of the west
  • The triangles are "echoed and repeated in every dimension"; "motif"
  • High atrium
    • "most dramatic"
    • open interior court
    • enclosed by a sculptural space frame
    • centered on same axis that forms the circulation spine for the West building
    • cover less of atrium to allow light
    • skylight system for light
    • space frame
      • mimic triangular geometry
      • sculptural structure
      • steel-frames
      • Form isosceles triangles modules (same ratio as the 2:3 in the building
      • Tubular aluminum bars placed against glass panels to reduce glare (w/out diminishing play of light)
      • never a 16000 square foot frame had been successfully built
      • 23 awards for work
  • pink Tennessee marble
  • 3rd St facade
    • "bold horizontal bands of marble"
  • Mall facade
    • window wall
    • partially angled back (reflect buildings geometry
    • broken by a tall window to illuminate library within
  • To emphasize the corners, lighter stone was used for all of the vertical corners
    • 2005: joints attaching marble panels to walls showed signs of strain
    • 2008: Remove and reinstall ALL panels, will be done in 2013
  • Houses Modern art
• Concourse
  • Beneath 4th street
  • Leo Villareal
  • Multiverse
  • Largest and most complex light sculpture