The Old Patent Office Building is a historic building in Washington, D.C. that covers an entire city block between F and G Streets and 7th and 9th Streets NW in the Penn Quarter section of Chinatown. Built 1836–1867 in the Greek Revival style, the building first served as one of the earliest U.S. Patent Office buildings.
The building has housed many U.S. federal government departments, including the first exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution. The structure now houses two Smithsonian art museums: the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.
History 19th century
Designed in the Greek Revival style by architect Robert Mills, construction started in 1836, and the massive structure took 31 years to complete. United States patent law required inventors to submit scale models of their inventions, which were retained by the Patent Office and required housing.
In Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's plan for the capital city, the site of the Patent Office Building, halfway between the Capitol and the President's House, was set aside for a monumental structure. L'Enfant envisaged a nondenominational "church of the Republic", which he later modified to a Pantheon devoted to great Americans.
Mills described the proportions of the Greek Revival central portico as "exactly those of the Parthenon of Athens", a departure in Washington, where previously ambitious public buildings had been based on Roman and Renaissance precedents. Fireproofing the design was an essential concern: Mills spanned the interior spaces with masonry vaulting without the use of wooden beams. Skylights and interior light courts filled the spaces with daylight.
After years of political infighting, in which Congressional committees questioned Mills' competence and insisted on design changes that inserted unnecessary supporting columns and tie-rods, Mills was summarily dismissed in 1851. Construction continued under the direction of Thomas U. Walter, one of Mills' harshest critics,In the fire of 1877, Mill's much-criticized vaulted ceilings, which Walter had predicted would fail in case of fire, held intact, while Walter's iron-reinforced vaults collapsed. and was completed in 1865.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The Patent Office was founded in 1834, and it moved to the building in 1842. From 1854 to 1857, Clara Barton worked in the building as a clerk to the Patent Commissioner, the first woman federal employee to receive equal pay.
In 1877 the building's west wing suffered a fire that destroyed some 87,000 patent models; it was restored by Adolf Cluss, 1877–1885, in the style he termed "modern Renaissance" as documented in Patent Office 1877 fire.
Civil war
During the Civil War, the building was turned into military barracks, hospital, and morgue. Wounded soldiers lay on cots in second-floor galleries, among glass cases holding models of inventions that had been submitted with patent applications. The American poet Walt Whitman frequented "that noblest of Washington buildings" and read to wounded men. The building was chosen as the venue for Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ball in 1865. Whitman worked at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, located in the building, from January 24 to June 30, 1865, before being fired for having a copy of Leaves of Grass in his desk.
20th century
In the 20th century, the building was occupied by the Patent Office until 1932; it then housed the Civil Service Commission. A street widening sliced away the monumental stairs to its south portico. In 1953, legislation was introduced to demolish the building for a parking lot, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation giving it to the Smithsonian in 1958. This was an important victory for the historic preservation movement in the United States.
The Faulkner, Kingsbury & Stenhouse firm of architects supervised the renovation of the interior as museum space starting in 1964. In 1965, the building was designated a National Historic Landmark.
National Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery
The National Museum of American Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) and the National Portrait Gallery opened in January 1968. The north wing housed the art museum and the south wing housed the portrait gallery. Office space and a café occupied the east wing. The center courtyard had outdoor eating space for the cafe and several large trees.
In 1995, the Smithsonian revealed the Old Patent Office Building was in serious disrepair. The roof leaked; netting had to be placed in some galleries to catch falling ceiling plaster; window frames were rotting; the floor tiles in the Great Hall were crumbling, and the exterior façade was so degraded it was shedding fist-sized pieces of rock.Trescott, Jacqueline. "The Dilapidated State of the Nation's Attic." The Washington Post. June 10, 1995, Subscription required.
21st century
Renovation
The building was closed in 2000 for needed repairs. After undergoing extensive renovations, it reopened on July 1, 2006, and was renamed The Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture in honor of a gift from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The building houses the collections of two Smithsonian museums: the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The Smithsonian announced the building would close in January 2000 for a two-year, $42 million renovation. Hartman-Cox Architects was hired to oversee the conservation and repair.Lewis, Jo Ann. "Repairs to Close Two Art Museums". The Washington Post. January 29, 1997, Subscription required. The estimated cost of the renovation then grew, initially in 2000 to $110–120 million.Trescott, Jacqueline. "Extensive Leaks In the Nation's Attic". The Washington Post. April 1, 2000, Subscription required.
The 2000 to 2006 renovation included restoring the porticos modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, a curving double staircase, colonnades, vaulted galleries, large windows, and skylights as long as a city block. According to the Smithsonian Institution, "Extraordinary effort was made to use new preservation technologies to restore the historic fabric of the building and re-use historic materials."
Prior to the building's closure in January 2000, a decision was reached to allot about one-third of the building's total space to the National Portrait Gallery while simultaneously eliminating the informal north-south division between the NPG and American Art Museum.Forgey, Benjamin. "The Old Patent Office, Pending Renewal." Washington Post. January 1, 2000. This led to acrimony between the two museums, and a public debate about which collection deserved more space. The Smithsonian resolved the dispute practically: Art that best fit an exhibition space got it. (For example, since modern art often tends toward large canvases, this art is on the high-ceilinged third floor.)Trescott, Jacqueline. "Museums Reopen to a Brand-New View". The Washington Post. July 1, 2006, Subscription required.
By March 2001, the cost of the Old Patent Office renovation rose to $180 million. That month, Nan Tucker McEvoy (a California newspaper heiress and arts patron) donated $10 million for the renovation.Trescott, Jacqueline. "Smithsonian Art Museum Gets Second $10 Million". The Washington Post. March 7, 2001, Subscription required. The Henry Luce Foundation gave another $10 million later that year.Trescott, Jacqueline. "Old Patent Office Gets A $25 Million Boost". The Washington Post. November 16, 2004, Subscription required. Costs continued to rise, however.
Congress appropriated $33.5 million for the renovation, but the reconstruction costs were estimated at $214 million in June 2001 and the museum not scheduled to reopen until 2005.Trescott, Jacqueline. "Smithsonian Projects Face Delays". The Washington Post. June 23, 2001, Subscription required. Just a month later, the reopening was pushed back even further to July 2006.Forgey, Benjamin. "Naked Splendor". The Washington Post. July 20, 2003, Subscription required.
In 2003, the government's contribution to the renovation rose to $166 million, and more than $40 million in private funds had been raised. Smithsonian officials subsequently began discussing a major change to the renovation design: Adding a glass roof to the open courtyard in the center of the Old Patent Office Building. Congress approved the change in August 2003.
In March 2004, the Smithsonian announced that Foster and Partners, would design the glass canopy.; ; Trescott, Jacqueline. "Way Clear for British Architect's Glass Act". The Washington Post. March 16, 2004.
In November 2004, Robert Kogod (a real estate development executive) and his wife, Arlene (heir to Charles E. Smith Construction fortune) donated $25 million to complete the canopy. By then, costs had risen to $298 million with $60 million in private funds still to be raised.
In early November 2004, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC, which has statutory authority to approve all buildings and renovations in the D.C. metropolitan area) approved the preliminary design for the glass canopy. The United States Commission of Fine Arts, an advisory commission on design, approved the canopy in January 2005.Forgey, Benjamin. "Panel Rejects Smithsonian Plan For Patent Office". The Washington Post. June 3, 2005. Delays in obtaining final NCPC approval and construction materials for the canopy led to a major delay in the roof's installation.
In April 2005, the Smithsonian said that the canopy would not be ready by the time the museum reopened in July 2006, and would be installed in 2007. But opposition to the canopy was rising. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), a federal agency, opposed enclosing the courtyard; the height of the canopy above the cornice line; the bright lighting of the canopy; and the destruction of the landscaping, fountains, and trees in the courtyard. Opposition was also expressed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Washington, D.C. State Preservation Office, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Foster and Partners reduced the height of the canopy and altered the way it would be lit in response to these complaints. They also redesigned the canopy to rest on eight steel pillars rather than resting on the roof of the building. The ACHP said the height and lighting changes were not enough, and that the pillars detracted from the beauty of the courtyard. The design changes, coupled with inflation, raised the cost of the canopy to $50 million from $38 million by April 2005.Trescott, Jacqueline. "Patent Office Roof: Pending". The Washington Post. April 25, 2005.
NCPC reversed its two previous preliminary approvals and rejected the design for the glass canopy on June 2, 2005. NCPC officials said they were convinced by the concerns raised by preservationists, and condemned the Smithsonian's design approval process for being exclusionary. The 6-to-5 vote forced work to come to a halt on the courtyard and canopy, and required that the Smithsonian restore the courtyard to its original appearance (including reinstallation of two iron fountains). The decision cost the Smithsonian $8 million.Forgey, Benjamin. "Cost of Reversal on Patent Office $8 Million, Smithsonian Says". The Washington Post. June 9, 2005, Subscription required.
Unwilling to lose the canopy, the Smithsonian brought five alternatives to the NCPC on August 4. Two included a glass canopy with flat roofs. Three others lowered the canopy by an additional and redirected the lighting to avoid creating a beacon-like effect for the canopy at night. All the alternatives changed the proposed landscaping of the new courtyard and added water features. At least one retained the iron fountains.Trescott, Jacqueline. "Old Patent Office Options Clearly Still Favor Glass". The Washington Post. August 5, 2005, Subscription required.