Page 1 of 7
Washington, DC
I am a visitor here, I am not permanent
In an average year, it is likely that I am in Washington, DC two, maybe three times. For well over ten years, I have been going on a December day trip in search of Christmas presents, every summer since 2014 I have been visiting the always interesting (and often successful) installations at the National Building Museum, and occasionally I’ll find myself at the National Epilepsy Walk in the spring. Getting to DC is pretty easy, and it’s even do-able as a long day trip via Amtrak through New York Penn Station. Will all of these visits, things and places become familiar, and it takes something special to elevate things to the level of inclusion in one of these slideshows (despite all evidence to the contrary, I do actually have some slideshow standards).
The last time that one of the slideshows visited I.M. Pei’s East Wing of the National Gallery, things looked just a little different. Back then, there was a real problem with the facade as the fasteners holding all those stone panels in place began to fail. This led to years and years of temporary closures and then, finally, to a fully renovated museum that hasn’t looked this good since it first opened all those many years ago.
If I was forced to provide a list of what my favorite buildings are, I would first complain that such a question is too simplistic to really be answered. Every building is different, and comparing building to building is an exercise in utter futility that is doomed before you even start. Then I would take a deep somewhat condescending breath, and then start listing all sorts of qualifiers, things like “this is just a list of buildings I’m remembering now” or “this changes all the time” or “this is an exercise in utter futility.” Then I would start with the TWA Terminal in New York, the Reichstag Dome, the Einstein Tower, Sagrada Familia and, of course, the East Wing of the National Gallery.
As much as I love the East Wing of the National Gallery, I normally only stop by for a quick visit. I’ll come inside, go through security, hang out in the atrium, maybe go upstairs, maybe see the lower floor galleries, then take the underground moving walkway through the Leo Villareal installation and then head back to Union Station to catch my train. This time, I spent more time in the galleries than usual, specifically since the renovations also included opening up some areas not previously opened, including a chance to ascend up into one of the towers.
The high point (literally) of the East Wing renovation is the roof, where a giant blue rooster by Katharina Fritsch seems as confused as I am to be in a brand new space in a building so loved and in a building so familiar.
This trip to Washington, DC had nothing to do with searching for Christmas presents or the National Building Museum summer installation or walking in a circle to somehow fight epilepsy. This time I was there for AIA Grassroots, an annual leadership conference that was far better than I expected it to be. I am currently serving as President-Elect in my local AIA section (AIA Architects League of Northern New Jersey), so learning about how the AIA actually works and meeting people in a similar situation from across the country is actually quite helpful. The conference lasts three days and keeps you really quite busy trapped in a sub, sub, sub basement conference center at a big downtown hotel, although occasionally you have the chance to get out to things like a reception at the non-ADA compliant AIA Headquarters or fighting your way above ground, just for a moment, to find cell reception and get annoyed by work email.
One of the things about these “Weekend Trip” slideshows is that they tend to bounce around in terms of time and location. One moment you’re in a sub, sub, sub basement in DC in March, and the next thing you know it’s summer and you’re back in New York at Santiago Calatrava’s Oculus, the nicest PATH Station ever (take that, every other PATH Station). We’re here this time not to gawk at the architecture but instead to visit a ticketed attraction: “Up Close: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.” This exhibition features full size prints of the chapel, a chance to see up close what you can’t actually see at the actual Sistine Chapel. The ticket wasn’t terrible, although after you pay the $20 to get in, you realize that because of the open setting and overhead balconies, you probably could have saved the $20 and seen Up Close from just a few feet farther away for free.
We’re going to end this first page of the 2017 Weekend Trips Slideshow with some up close pictures of Up Close: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, where my $20 ticket admission now means a $20 savings for you. Enjoy Up Close.
