Home to nearly 600 historic landmarks, 40 historic districts and more than 25,000 properties protected by historic designation, Washington, D.C., is defined by both its architecture and the abundance of its centrally located parks and green spaces. “The ‘city of magnificent distances,’ as intended by its planner, Pierre L’Enfant, has been realized, with broad avenues angling past well-landscaped circles, squares, gardens and greenscapes,” proclaimed an article in Smithsonian.com. “His design was based on European models translated to American ideals. In the last few decades, D.C. and the surrounding metropolitan area have been virtually reborn as an international, multicultural cosmopolis.”
As the centerpiece of L’Enfant’s plan, D.C.’s National Mall stretches for two miles, from Capitol Hill to the Potomac River. “Influenced by the designs of several European cities and 18th century gardens, such as France’s Palace of Versailles, the plan of Washington, D.C., was symbolic and innovative for the new nation,” according to a statement from the National Park Service. “Two hundred years since its design, the integrity of the plan of Washington is largely unimpaired – boasting a legally enforced height restriction, landscaped parks, wide avenues and open space allowing intended vistas.”
Throughout the nation’s capital, examples of Beaux-Arts architecture, such as the Library of Congress and Union Station, mingle with Neoclassical, Egyptian Revival and Modern styles. “Washington is one of the most beautiful cities in the world,” noted Ben Forgey, who was the Washington Post’s architecture critic for a quarter of a century. “For years I’ve sort of haunted the Mall. The sense of order, the greenness and the openness of it extend throughout the whole city.”
In a ranking of the 150 most popular works of architecture in the U.S. by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the District of Columbia stood out among American cities with six of the top 10 structures ranked by AIA members and the general public. Among the leading vote-getters in the AIA’s “America’s Favorite Architecture” ranking was the White House, with its Georgian style of architecture, and the Washington National Cathedral designed in the Gothic Revival style. Also making the top 10 list were the neoclassical U.S. Capitol and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial; the Lincoln Memorial, resembling the Greek Parthenon; and the modern Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The overall AIA list included the Washington Monument, the Supreme Court of the United States, the National Gallery of Art (West Wing) and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) designed by James Ingo Freed, who is a Holocaust survivor. The museum is described as “resonator of memory” in an overview of the project on the Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Web site. “Architectural form is abstract and open-ended so that different people read the building differently, each sifting it through his accumulated personal experience,” the Web site explained.
At the Holocaust Museum, each “visitor becomes victim,” according to a post on Washingtonian.com. “Everything from the architecture, lighting, testimonials and exhibits are meant to lend to the haunting atmosphere, an amazingly effective way to engage the visitor in the emotional experience,” the magazine reported.
Conforming to the museum’s concrete and stone aesthetics are exposed metal trusses, handrails, plates and rivets coated with custom-gray colors created by Tnemec. “The Holocaust Museum was designed to be a very disquieting environment,” Tnemec coating consultant Todd Guntner attested. “The muted gray colors – USHMM Gray and Cloister Gray – continue the solemn mood created by the unpainted brick walls, mauve marble flooring and stark architectural spaces.”
The coated metal in the museum was either shop-primed by the fabricator with Series 90-97 Tneme-Zinc, a moisture-cured, zinc-rich urethane, or field primed with Series 135 Chembuild, a polyamidoamine epoxy, which is an ideal foundation for aliphatic-polyurethane finish coats. All metal received an intermediate coat of Series 66 Hi-Build Epoxoline, a polyamide epoxy, or Series 161 Tneme-Fascure, a low-temperature cure polyamide epoxy. The finish coat was Series 1075 Endura-Shield II, an aliphatic acrylic polyurethane, which is highly resistant to abrasion, wet conditions and exterior weathering. Approximately 500 gallons of coatings were required to complete the project.
Nearly 11 years after the museum opened, the hollow metal handrails required maintenance due to wear and abrasion from heavy use. “We used Series 135 and Series 1075 to recoat the handrails, using the same custom colors,” Guntner added. “The handrails are the only thing that required recoating.”
Since its dedication on April 22, 1993, the Holocaust Museum has welcomed more than 30 million visitors. The museum’s collection includes more than 12,750 artifacts, 49 million pages of archival documents, 80,000 historical photographs, 200,000 registered survivors, 1,000 hours of archival footage, 84,000 library items and 9,000 oral histories.
The Holocaust Museum has received the American Institute of Architects Honor Award, the Building Stone Institute Annual Tucker Award and the New York Society of Architects Architectural Achievement Award.