3rd Annual Buildy Award Winner: Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture
MAAM is pleased to announce the winner of the third Building Museums® “Buildy” Award: the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, D.C. The museums completed a major renovation of their historic Greek Revival building in 2006 that revealed the full magnificence of its architectural features and created a dazzling showcase for American art and portraiture. The award will be accepted by Claire Larkin, special projects director at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, who oversaw the planning and design of the Luce Foundation Center for American Art and the Lunder Conservation Center, two innovative new public spaces in the museums’ building.
The “Buildy” Award will be presented the evening of April 11, 2011 at 6 pm at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Calif. The award is a highlight of the 2011 Building Museums® Symposium presented by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums in partnership with the Western Museums Association.
For more information about the project, please download the project fact sheet.
About the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture building project
The museums’ building, a National Historic Landmark, is located in the heart of Washington’s downtown cultural district in the Penn Quarter neighborhood. The building has been meticulously renovated with expanded permanent-collection galleries and innovative public spaces. Begun in 1836 and completed in 1868, it is one of the oldest public buildings constructed in early Washington and is considered one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the United States. A $283 million renovation (2000-2006) restored many of the building’s architectural features, including porticos modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, a curving double staircase, vaulted galleries, large windows and skylights as long as a city block.
The museums share a joint main entrance at Eighth and F streets N.W., the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, the Lunder Conservation Center and the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, a public gathering space designed by the world-renowned architectural firm Foster + Partners, which opened in November 2007 and features a café.
For more information about the museums, the history of the building and the renovation, visit the museums’ websites americanart.si.edu and npg.si.edu.
About the Building Museums® Symposium
Building Museums® is an international symposium presented annually by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM) and open to all interested in the design and planning of museums. The 7th Annual Symposium will be held in San Francisco, April 10-12, 2011 at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, with sessions at the Disney Family Museum, the Oakland Museum, the Mint, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the California Academy of Sciences, and the MH DeYoung Museum. Our key partner for 2011 is the Western Museums Association (WMA). There is still time to register for the 2011 conference.
