National Building Museum Educator Resource Packet Grades 3—5

Washington: symbol and city

This lesson was created as a supplement to the Washington: Symbol and City program at the National Building Museum. It is designed to be used in your classroom independently, or as an activity before or after a school program at the Museum. For more information about and to register for the National Building Museum’s school programs, visit http://go.nbm.org/schoolvisit.

The Washington: Symbol and City school program, using the Washington: Symbol and City exhibition, helps students in grades 3 through 5 understand the complexity of issues associated with the creation of the Nation’s capital.

About the National Building Museum

The National Building Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to advancing the qual- ity of the built environment by educating people about its impact on their lives. Through its exhibitions and educational programs, including innovative curricula for students, as well as online content and publica- tions, the Museum tells the stories of the world people design and build.

The Museum is an independent, non-profit institution and is located in a historic landmark structure at 401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. Connect with the Museum online at www.nbm.org, on Twitter at @BuildingMuseum, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NationalBuildingMuseum. Lesson 2: Symbolic Architecture: Building Meaning in Washington, DC National Standards of Learning: Mathematics – Geometry, Problem Solving; Social Studies – 3, 4; Science – B, E, F; Technological Literacy – 10; Visual Arts – 1 Duration: 45-60 minutes

Overview Most of the federal buildings and monuments in Washington, D.C. share some very striking visual characteristics: stark white color, grand imposing size, columns, marble or marble-like building materials, and domes, to name the most easily noticeable. Many of these buildings were built within the same relative time period – a period when the United States was not a world power and did not have a very long history. Several of these buildings have become international symbols for the United States (the White House, the Capitol Building) or for Washington, D.C. as the capital (the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial). In this lesson students will investigate images of well-known government buildings in Washington, D.C. They will start to understand why the federal government would want and need to create imposing and long-lasting structures and why we continue to do so today. Students will come to understand, through comparison of buildings, that symbolic architecture is used to convey ideas. Objectives Students will: • Review and define symbolism and architecture. • Create a class definition of symbolic architecture. • Analyze images of buildings and monuments in Washington, D.C. • Collectively determine three reasons that so many of the government buildings in Washington, D.C. look alike. • Hypothesize what this uniform “look” is trying to convey.

Materials Each group (four groups total) should receive: • Four images of Washington, DC buildings (Enclosed if you received this package by mail. If you downloaded this lesson from the internet please visit go.nbm.org/wscbuildings to find the building images) • One Building Comparison Worksheet (p. 20)

Teacher Prep • Photocopy Building Comparison Worksheet p. 20

Vocabulary • Symbolism • Architecture • Symbolic Architecture 17 Lesson Plan

1. Review and clarify definitions (10 minutes) Ask the students to think about all the places they can find symbols. Ask them if they think buildings can have symbols? Lead them into the understanding that not only do buildings have symbols but they can also be symbols. Explain to the students that during this activity they will investigate symbolic architecture. First lead the students in a creation of a definition for architecture. Ask students: • What does architecture mean? • What do architects do? • Let’s combine the definition of symbolism and the definition of architecture together– what do we get? Architecture – the art of building; the profession of designing buildings, open areas, communities, and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect. Architecture often includes design or selection of furnishings and decorations, supervision of construction work, and the examination, restoration, or remodeling of existing buildings. After discussing the meaning of the word architecture, transition to a discussion of symbolic archi- tecture. Sometimes architects add symbols to their buildings to give people visual clues as to how the buildings was used, or to make people feel a certain way. Sometimes a whole building can be a symbol, so that everytime a person looks at the building they automatically think of the city it is in or the person for whom it was built. This is called symbolic architecture. Tell them they will now take a look at some famous monuments and government buildings that employ a lot of elements of symbolic architecture.

2. Washington, D.C. Buildings Image Comparison (15-30 minutes) Give each group a set of building images. Assign a recorder for each group. Ask students to work together to answer the questions on the Building Comparison Worksheet. Using their completed worksheets as a starting point, lead the class in a discussion of what all the buildings and monu- ments have in common. Some answers may include: • Located in Washington, D.C. • Use of columns • Marble or white building materials • Clean lines, very stark • Large and imposing • Similar to or refer to Greek and Roman architecture • Government-owned buildings – government work is done in them or they represent parts of the history of the United States of America • People travel to see them

18 Ask students what feelings these buildings are trying to convey? And what emotion words come to mind? Keep a running list of the responses on the blackboard. Tell students they will be incorporating those feelings into buildings they will build during their visit to the National Building Museum.

3. Discussion of Washington, D.C. Timeline (15 minutes) The White House and the Capitol building were all planned and construction was begun when the country was still very young. Building began on the White House in 1792 and construction began on the Capitol building in 1793. The Lincoln Memorial (1966) and the Jefferson Memorial (1943) were built later but the architects designed them to look like the other two buildings. The main idea that you want to have students understand is that United States was building imposing buildings without the history to warrant their creation – they are echoing idealistic democracy and ideals, thus creating a collective idea about what the federal government is and does. Go through each building and ask students: • What was this building used for? Why was it made? • What was happening in the United States during this time period? • Who were these buildings built for? • Wouldn’t a less grand and less expensive building have worked just as well? • What’s the benefit of eliciting all these emotions (use the emotion words they gave you) through a building?

3. Conclusion (5 minutes) Review the definition of symbolic architecture you discussed at the beginning of the lesson. Ask students how buildings can make you feel a certain way. Use the emotion words they used earlier in the lesson. Tell students that they will be exploring these ideas in more depth on their field trip to the National Building Museum. Remind students that they will remain in the group they are in now for the trip to the Museum.

19 Names: ______

Student Worksheet Building Comparison What do the these buildings and monuments have in common? ______How do they look the same? ______How do they look different? ______Where are they located? ______What are they used for? ______What materials do you think were used to construct these buildings or monuments? ______

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