A Walk Through the National Museum of the American Indian Landscape

Two weeks ago, I met my students at the USBG.  When we finished touring, we took a quick walk over to the National Museum of the American Indian to take a look at the plantings and landscape design there.  

 

Completed in 2004, this building was fairly new to me and since I've returned to the DC area, I've not had a chance to take a good look at the site.  I have to admit, driving past it on Independence Avenue always let me a bit cold.  I wasn't crazy about the undulating curves, thinking they seemed a bit contrived (and knowing that the absence of corners was part of the concept, which is intended to honor certain Native American philosophies).

But, when in the building's main entry courtyard, my opinions changed a bit.  The space defined by the building's face is dramatic and has a stimulating kind of energy.

 

That's not to say I would have changed the texture of the windows a bit.  I speculated recently with an architect friend of mine and we wonder if the tight mullions were designed for budgetary or programmatic reasons.  The buiding's stone skin is so fine textured, I would have preferred to see larger, curved spans (i.e. expensive) panels of glass with less "designed" frames.  

 

And while it's hard to judge on a dreary day in early March, I wasn't feeling the landscape architectural design.  The change in materials between the clay-colored stone walls and the dark, highly finished stone pavers seems a bit abrupt.  And while the curvilinear design mirrors the building well, it otherwise feels to me like two different places.  I would have speculated that the landscape architect and the architect were not really dialoguing on this.

And boy would I have been dead wrong.  The same firm, Jones and Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, designed all of this (collaborating with AECOM, nee EDAW, Douglas Cardinal Joseph and GBQC Architects).   I'll definitely have to revisit this site on a summer day and see how the landscape works when people are using the seatwalls and water is flowing through the fountain feature at right in the photo.