MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Building in the Aftermath

N AUGUST 29, HURRICANE KATRINA dialogue that can inform the processes by made landfall along the Gulf Coast of which professionals of all stripes will work Othe , and literally changed in unison to repair, restore, and, where the shape of our country. The change was not necessary, rebuild the communities and just geographical, but also economic, social, landscapes that have suffered unfathomable and emotional. As weeks have passed since destruction. the storm struck, and yet another fearsome I am sure that I speak for my hurricane, Rita, wreaked further damage colleagues in these cooperating agencies and on the same region, Americans have begun organizations when I say that we believe to come to terms with the human tragedy, good design and planning can not only lead and are now contemplating the daunting the affected region down the road to recov- question of what these events mean for the ery, but also help prevent—or at least miti- Chase W. Rynd future of communities both within the gate—similar catastrophes in the future. affected area and elsewhere. We hope to summon that legendary In the wake of the terrorist American ingenuity to overcome the physi- attacks on and Washington cal, political, and other hurdles that may in 2001, the National Building stand in the way of meaningful recovery. initiated a series of public education pro- It seems self-evident to us that grams collectively titled Building in the the fundamental culture and urban char- Aftermath, conceived to help building and acter of New Orleans, one of the world’s design professionals, as well as the general great cities, must be preserved, revitalized, public, sort out the implications of those and protected. At the same time, we recog- unprecedented acts of mass violence. Now, nize that the city’s devastation, tragic following the one-two punch of Katrina though it was, presents an opportunity to and Rita, the Museum is resurrecting this correct some obvious errors dating back educational series. Working in cooperation decades or even centuries, and to create a with the U.S. Department of Housing and new, twenty-first-century city that is safer, Urban Development and other government more viable, and even more beautiful than agencies, along with fellow non-profit orga- it was when Katrina unleashed its fury. nizations including the American Institute To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, of Architects, the American Planning this will not be accomplished in a hundred Association, the American Society of days or even a thousand, but let us begin. Landscape Architects, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Realtors, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the , Executive Director the Museum is developing a roster of pro- National Building Museum grams that will address possible solutions to the many challenges raised by these natural disasters. We hope that the series will be a model of interdisciplinary cooperation and

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FEATURE Mapping by Laura Schiavo Jewish Washington

above / (Figure 1) Six Buildings, Laura Schiavo is director of museum pro- TUDENTS OF WASHINGTON HISTORY HAVE at 21st Street, NW. Washington’s first Jewish resi- grams for the Jewish Historical Society NOTED time and again that the capital dent, Isaac Polock, completed these is a city of neighborhoods off the brick mansions near the President’s of Washington, DC, which organized the S Mall and beyond the . Unlike House in the 1790s. Known as the exhibition Jewish Washington: Scrapbook Six Buildings, they initially housed the in other cities, however, the District’s U.S. State Department and Secretary of an American Community, currently on of the Navy. The building at the right neighborhoods are not easily reducible was built separately. view at the National Building Museum. Courtesy Historical Society of Washington, DC to national origins or ethnic or religious This temporary exhibition, which comple- heritage. Like immigrant groups across the ments the Museum’s long-term show country, Washington’s early Jews sought Washington: Symbol and City, traces the community amongst fellow Jews. But new story of one ethnic group in the nation’s arrivals established residential patterns capital through the places and events that that contrasted with patterns in other U.S. cities. Washington never had a single have defined the community. “Jewish neighborhood;” newcomers lived in enclaves along major thoroughfares across the city. Nineteenth-century Washington, like virtually all cities of that era, was a “walking city.” Before the advent of streetcars, residents often lived within

2 blueprints MAPPING JEWISH WASHINGTON walking distance of work. Many Jewish 21 Jews formed the first Jewish congrega- merchants and shopkeepers literally lived tion in the city. During the Civil War, the “above the store.” Washington lacked the city’s Jewish population grew from 200 to manufacturing industry of other cities— almost 2,000. Many settled along the com- its “industry” was the federal govern- mercial corridors of Seventh Street, ment—and Jewish merchants catered Georgetown, and Southwest. to the needs of the ever-expanding bureaucracy. As their numbers increased, Seventh Street, NW Jewish residents formed congregations and Anchored by the bustling Center Market built neighborhood houses of worship. The on Pennsylvania Avenue, Seventh Street, religious dictate that Orthodox Jews walk NW became the city’s main business to synagogue on the Sabbath resulted in district in the 1840s. Among the earliest close-knit neighborhoods where Jews lived, Jewish arrivals on Seventh Street were worked, and worshipped. These early syna- members of the Behrend family. gogues were (and continue to be) known for Immigrants from the German city of their geographic monikers—“Sixth and I” Rodenberg, they had arrived in New York (Adas Israel Congregation) and “Eighth and harbor and later moved to Washington. Shepherd” (Beth Sholom Congregation), By 1860 Bendiza Behrend ran a fancy goods for example—suggesting a strong sense store on Seventh. Further down the street, of place. Many of these synagogue buildings Adolphus Solomons sold stationery to stand today, a lasting record of Jewish Congress and the White House from his presence in neighborhoods no longer easily shop on Pennsylvania Avenue just east recognizable as having a Jewish past. of Seventh. [figure 2]

Early Arrivals Twenty-three Jews who fled Recife, Brazil and landed in New Amsterdam (now lower Manhattan) formed North America’s first Jewish community. The Jewish community in Washington, like the capital city itself, got a much later start. The diamond- shaped area along the shores of the Potomac was not designated as the future home of the federal district until 1790, and the government did not arrive until 1800. Among early land speculators who set their sights on the area was Isaac Polock, the first known Jewish resident of what Amid smaller furniture, jewelry, above / (Figure 2) Trade card, B. J. became Washington, D.C. Arriving from and millinery shops, several Jewish Behrend and Son. Bendiza Behrend was among the early German Jews Savannah, Polock completed a row of state- merchants expanded their businesses into who lived, worked, and worshipped in the Seventh Street neighborhood. ly houses along Pennsylvania Avenue near fashionable department stores. Among Courtesy Jewish Historical Society of the President’s House. [figure 1] them were brothers Max and Gustav Greater Washington Fleeing harsh restrictions in Lansburgh, who expanded their dry their native countries, German-speaking goods store into a grand 24,000-square- Jewish immigrants began crowding the foot department store in 1882. Lansburgh East Coast’s port cities in the early part of Brothers was a downtown landmark on the nineteenth century. The Washington Seventh Street for 114 years. Jewish community’s comparatively late Farther north on Seventh Street, start occurred when some of these new new Eastern European immigrants, part of immigrants later set out for the growing the second wave of Jewish immigration to capital’s economic opportunities. In 1852, Washington and nationwide, ran “Mom and

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NW. Immigrant Wolf Nordlinger had been a peddler in Georgia; after the Civil War, he opened a clothing store on Bridge Street where his brother Bernard later ran a shoe store across the street. Although Jews com- prised only one percent of Georgetown’s population, the 1870 census listed 30 Jewish heads of households with business- es in Georgetown, including ready-made clothing, dry goods, a jeweler, a hardware store, and a grocery. Georgetown’s Jews initially worshipped together as the Mount right / (Figure 3) Washington Hebrew Congregation, Eighth Street between Sinai Society, but joined Washington H and I Streets, NW. When it outgrew Hebrew Congregation by 1880. its first building, Washington Hebrew Congregation built this Byzantine- Newly arrived Eastern European Romanesque temple designed by architects Stutz & Pease. Completed Jewish immigrants opened shops along M in 1898, the building still stands Street and founded a congregation in 1911. on Eighth Street between H and I Streets, and is now home to Greater Pop” operations in the 1890s and into the In 1915, 50 members bought a house at 2801 New Hope Baptist Church. early twentieth century. Between L and N Street, NW to be used as Kesher Israel, Courtesy Washington Hebrew Congregation N Streets in the area now occupied by the an Orthodox synagogue. [figure 4] bottom right / (Figure 4) Kesher Washington Convention Center stood Israel Congregation, 28th and N Ottenberg’s and Hinkel’s bakeries, Zoltrov’s Streets, NW. In 1915, Kesher Israel Congregation purchased this private fish store, and at least two kosher butchers. home at 2801 N Street, NW. The new In 1924 Shmuel Shinberg opened the Jewish synagogue, built on the site in 1931, has been in continuous use ever since. Store selling Jewish literature, prayer Courtesy Kesher Israel Congregation books, and Hebrew New Year’s cards. A soda fountain rounded out the offerings. In the early twentieth century, enough families lived in the neighborhood to support three synagogues within a few city blocks. Members of the city’s first Jewish congregation, Washington Hebrew, had worshipped on Eighth near I Street, NW, since the Civil War. [figure 3] A second congregation, Adas Israel, was built in 1876 just blocks away at Sixth and G Streets, Southwest NW. By 1908, Adas had moved to a new, In the 1860s and 1870s a small group of larger synagogue two blocks north at German Jewish merchants settled on Sixth and I Streets. After meeting above what was called “the Island” in Southwest, a Seventh Street shop, orthodox Russian which was separated from the Mall by immigrants converted a nearby church at a canal. Jewish immigrants and African Fifth and I Streets, NW, for use as Ohev Americans were among those who con- Sholom Congregation in 1906. tributed to the near doubling of the neigh- borhood’s population between 1870 and 1900. Close to 200 Jewish families in Georgetown Southwest supported two synagogues: A port town on the estab- Talmud Torah Congregation, founded in lished decades before the founding of 1887, and Voliner Anshe Sfard, founded in Washington, Georgetown was an affordable 1908. The famous entertainer Al Jolson place to gain an economic foothold when (born Asa Yoelson) attended synagogue at German-speaking Jews first arrived. Jews Talmud Torah, where his father, Moshe lived above their stores clustered at the Yoelson, served as cantor in the early hub of 31st and Bridge (now M) Street, twentieth century.

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Jewish-owned businesses start businesses, added their ranks to the lined the cobblestone streets near 4-1/2 English, German, and Irish residents who (now Fourth) Street, SW [figure 5] Harry had settled there previously, giving the Chidakel’s barbershop was on Seventh area the highest percentage of foreign-born Street, and Aaron Berkman’s grocery was residents of any Washington neighborhood. These new arrivals contributed to a thriving upper left / (Figure 5) Berkman at Third and G. Morning Star Bakery on Grocery Store, 3rd and G Streets, 4-1/2 Street kept neighboring stores stocked commercial enclave. Seventy-five businesses SW. Aaron Berkman’s grocery was one of many Jewish-owned business- with fresh bread. Isaac and Cyril Levy in 1880 doubled to 154 in 1890, and 428 es that lined the cobblestone streets opened Levy’s Busy Corner department twenty years later. near 4-1/2 Street, SW. Courtesy Jewish Historical Society of store on 4-1/2 Street in 1888. As on Seventh Street, in Southwest, Greater Washington. Gift of Esther McBride When urban renewal legislation and in Georgetown, many merchants first passed in 1945, Jewish storeowners in lived above their shops before they could above / (Figure 6) Destruction of Talmud Torah Synagogue, 1959, 467 Southwest were among those who resisted afford a separate residence. When Jacob Love E Street, SW. In 1951 Talmud Torah plans to uproot the entire community. rented a building at 1405 H Street for his shoe Congregation in Southwest moved to upper Sixteenth Street and in The legal case Berman v. Parker fought the repair store in 1907, the second floor served 1957 merged with Ohev Sholom planned demolition of the Southwest as the apartment for his family, with a small Congregation. Two years later, Talmud Torah’s original synagogue neighborhood all the way to the Supreme kitchen with a wood burning stove behind was one of the last buildings demol- ished as part of urban renewal. Court. When the plaintiffs were defeated, the store for bathing, laundry, and cooking. © ; Reprinted by demolition proceeded. [figure 6] In 1907, Jewish residents founded permission of the DC Public Library Ezras Israel, an Orthodox synagogue at Eighth and I Streets, NE. [figure 7] Two years H Street, NE later a small community of Orthodox Jews By the early 1900s many Jewish immigrants living nearby on established had settled on H Street, NE, a commercial Southeast Hebrew Congregation, initially corridor that developed along the eastern meeting in a converted loft near the Navy end of one of Washington’s first streetcar Yard on 8th Street, SE. lines. Eastern European Jews and Italian and Greek immigrants, attracted by afford- able housing and small stores in which to

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who placed covenants in the real estate deeds of areas like Spring Valley and parts of Chevy Chase specifying that homes could not be sold to “Negroes, Hebrews, Persians and Syrians.” Though the Supreme Court ruled restrictive covenants unconstitutional in 1948, their effects lingered in many neighborhoods. New synagogues formed as the Jewish community moved uptown. Tifereth Israel Congregation formed in 1914 when Jews living near Columbia Road and Eighteenth Street (now ) began meeting in neighboring homes. In 1925, B’nai Israel Congregation gathered in a converted house on Georgia Avenue, NW before adapting a church at Fourteenth and Emerson Streets, NW. Beth Sholom Congregation dedicated their synagogue at Eighth and Shepherd Streets, NW in 1938 and remained there for 18 years, a corner- stone of Petworth’s Jewish community. [figure 8] In 1925, the Hebrew Home for the above / ((Figure 7) Ezras Israel Moving Uptown Aged opened new, expansive headquarters Congregation, 800 I Street, NE. After on Spring Road near Thirteenth Street and meeting in several locations, Ezras As Jews became more established, they Israel Congregation adapted a former was joined in 1940 by the Jewish Social moved uptown into neighborhoods made church at 800 I Street, NE in 1911. Service Agency. The congregation remained in that possible by the late nineteenth-century location for fifty years. The period of the 1930s through Courtesy Jewish Historical Society of Greater development of streetcar suburbs. By the Washington. Gift of Robert I. Silverman 1950s saw an exponential increase in early 1910s and 1920s, more established Washington’s Jewish population. Young below / (Figure 8) Economy Meat German-American Jews had begun moving Market, 1922, 2827 Georgia Avenue, professionals arrived in droves to work N.W. As the Jewish population moved away from their downtown businesses for Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. During northward in the 1920s and 1930s, toward and Forest Hills. storeowners followed suit, opening deli- World War II, Washington experienced catessens and kosher butcher shops More recent Jewish immigrants moved an influx of Jewish war workers, and the along Georgia and Eastern Avenues. to neighborhoods east of Courtesy Jewish Historical Society of Greater federal bureaucracy expanded in the 1950s. Washington. Gift of Mildred and Nathan such as Brightwood, Crestwood, and Shankman Three new Conservative congregations Petworth in the 1930s and ’40s. The move formed in the 1940s to serve Jewish soldiers to upper Northwest and later to the sub- and government workers flocking to urbs was restricted in part by developers wartime Washington. These congregations later merged in 1965 to create Congregation Shaare Tikvah at 141 Xenia Street, SW. Soon after, the congregation moved to Prince George’s County, Maryland. Residents of in Northeast created two new congregations, Shomrei Emunah and Shaare Tefila, in the 1950s.

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Postwar Communities Since the early part of the last century, mem- bers of the Orthodox Kesher Israel continue As in metropolitan areas across the country, to live in Georgetown where they walk to many Jews left the city in the post-war synagogue on the Sabbath. Recently a new decades, with a plurality moving to Mont- Jewish day school opened on upper Sixteenth gomery County suburbs. By 1956, half of the Street, and Hillel International opened a area’s 81,000 Jews lived outside the city. new headquarters downtown in the old Community leaders began planning to move Seventh Street neighborhood. Adas Israel’s communal agencies to the Maryland suburbs. former synagogues have been saved and serve Synagogues and other Jewish as downtown cultural institutions. organizations followed. By 1960, Adas Israel, As these examples make clear, Washington Hebrew, Ohev Sholom Talmud an active Jewish presence in Washington Torah, B’nai Israel, and Tifereth Israel belies the notion of the city’s Jewish com- had moved to new synagogues in upper munity as, in the words of historian Hasia Northwest. In 1969, the major Jewish Diner, an “outpost of a suburban communi- agencies including the Hebrew Home, ty.” Washington’s Jewish community and Jewish Social Service Agency, and Jewish its neighborhoods tell a story distinct from Community Center (JCC), moved to a new the familiar American immigrant narra- campus in Rockville. Synagogues including tive: “Immigrant Jews moved to the ‘old below / (Figure 9) Moving the origi- B’nai Israel and Beth Sholom also moved Jewish neighborhood’ where they ran nal (1876) Adas Israel synagogue, to the suburbs in the 1970s and ’80s. 1969. When construction of the small businesses until achieving financial Metro headquarters threatened the Today, 83 percent of greater stability and moving uptown and into the city’s oldest synagogue building Washington’s more than 215,000 Jews live at Sixth and G Streets, NW, the suburbs.” In Washington, the more compli- Jewish Historical Society of Greater in the Maryland and Northern Virginia Washington mobilized to save it. cated and more accurate narrative—of suburbs. However, the percentage of Jewish Hoisted onto a pair of dollies, the Jewish enclaves, of suburbs, and of a building was moved to Third and residents living in the city, rather than the G Streets, NW, where it serves as resurging urban presence—is a far more a museum today. suburbs (17 percent), is still one of the high- interesting story. Courtesy Jewish Historical Society of est among major metropolitan Jewish com- • Greater Washington munities in the United States. Throughout its history, Washington’s Jewish community has maintained a commitment to the city. In the late 1950s, Marvin Caplan led Neighbors Inc.—a multiracial organization that worked to maintain integrated neighbor- hoods in Brightwood and . In Southwest, residents of the River Park Cooperative, an urban renewal project, re- established a Jewish presence in the neigh- borhood by forming Southwest Hebrew Congregation (later renamed Temple Micah) in 1966. District residents formed a new downtown Jewish Community Center in the late 1970s and in the 1990s purchased, restored, and reopened the former JCC build- ing at Sixteenth and Q Streets, NW. In the mid-1990s, Temple Micah chose to stay in the city, building a new synagogue near Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues, NW.

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FEATURE Architecture

by Deborah Sorensen Deborah Sorensen is a curatorial associ- A Summertime Smash ate at the National Building Museum, and In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the was project manager for the exhibition National Building Museum hosted its first Washington: Symbol and City. A graduate Reel Architecture Film Series this summer. The of the film program at Columbia College series was launched in July by a weekend of films dedicated to the built environment Chicago, and recipient of a Master of that surrounds Hollywood. Titles ranged Arts degree in museum studies from the from the Laurel and Hardy short Liberty and above / The Reel Architecture Film George Washington University, she pro- Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye to L.A. Story Series featured sixteen films and seven musical performances, attract- grammed and helped organize the Reel and Thom Andersen’s much-admired docu- ing many first-time visitors to the Architecture Film Series. National Building Museum. mentary Los Angeles Plays Itself. This special

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ARCHITECTURE ON SCREEN on Screen

left / During World War II, new arrivals to Washington, D.C. were often single women in need of a place to call home, but in The More the Merrier (George Stevens, 1943) two men vie for a room in Jean Arthur’s apartment. Advertisement, 1941–1945, courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

below / So close and yet so far, Joel McCrea (as Joe Carter) and Jean Arthur (as Constance 'Connie' Milligan) wake up to their romantic situation in The More the Merrier (George Stevens, 1943). © Columbia Pictures, courtesy Columbia Pictures/Photofest

weekend event was followed by seven top left / Wednesday night screenings of films in the top / Museum’s Great Hall. In keeping with the Museum’s anniversary, each week featured above / a film that shared or commented upon a past exhibition’s thematic focus. Some films were selected for having a direct connec- tion with an exhibition, such as how The More the Merrier touches upon the wartime housing shortage in Washington—one of the many stories featured in the long-term exhibition Washington: Symbol and City. Other films were chosen more playfully. No tales of cannibalism were to be found in the pop- ular exhibition Big & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century, for instance, but the film picked as that exhibition’s rep- resentative, Soylent Green, paints a melodra- matic but no less urgent picture of a future

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ARCHITECTURE ON SCREEN

the Great Hall while visitors explored the Museum’s gift shop as well as the exhibi- tions Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete and Washington: Symbol and City. Food was provided for moviegoers by the Museum’s non-profit neighbor Third & Eats. PIP Printing generously supplied the series with printed programs. Each week audi- ence members spread themselves out on the carpeted floor, in folding chairs, and against the columns to enjoy a film in the relaxed atmosphere of the Museum’s beau- tiful Great Hall. After the lights came up at the close of an evening, many visitors were drawn to the fountain, looking up at the columns or snapping group photos. The success of the series resulted largely from the positive word of mouth that came from a wealth of dedicated D.C. filmgoers eager for opportunities to watch and think about films in new and unusual above / Just as a front parlor in The in which sustainability may have more to ways. And although one news item may Heiress (William Wyler, 1949) repre- sents public hospitality, the rigid mod- do with population control than healthy have wondered about the connection ern workplace featured in The Best of building practices. between architecture and film, those who Everything (Jean Negulesco, 1959) clearly reflects the corporate power In total, more than one thousand read the program, listened to the opening structure facing newcomer Hope people attended the series, with many remarks, or simply watched the films from Lange (as Caroline Bender). © 20th Century Fox, courtesy 20th Century choosing to stay for multiple films during a new perspective, were rewarded by dis- Fox/Photofest the opening weekend and returning week covering another layer of meaning in oth- below / The Best of Everything after week throughout July and August. erwise familiar movies. The openness with (Jean Negulesco, 1959) enhanced the melodrama but accurately repro- During the weekly portion of the series, which the general audience approached duced the look of contemporary office before each movie, local bands played in the titles reflects a more academic trend of spaces, such as the sleek interior of Inland Steel’s Chicago headquarters (designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merril, 1958)

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ARCHITECTURE ON SCREEN interest in the relationship between archi- tecture and film that has been growing over the past couple of decades.

Academic Venues and Approaches Only a few weeks before the opening week- end of the Reel Architecture Film Series, an interdisciplinary conference called Designs for Living: Space and Place in the Cinema was hosted by the Centre for Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London. This three-day conference featured more than 36 presenters on topics such as “Domestic Spaces in Hitchcock Cinema,” “London on Screen,” “Representations of the Victorian Age: Interior Spaces and the Detail of Domestic Life,” as well as a keynote speech by James Sanders, architect and author of in Architecture and Film. Add to this mix an above / The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955) may have been a late the critically acclaimed book Celluloid untold number of lectures offered through arrival to the genre, but cinemato- Skyline: New York and the Movies (2001). Such and architecture programs, such as grapher John Alton’s use of light and shadow makes it a striking example a collection of scholars, gathered to discuss the talks and classes offered locally by archi- of how environment expresses moral the critical points of intersection between tect Stanley Hallet at the Corcoran Gallery of conflict in film noir. © Allied Artists, courtesy Allied architecture and the filmed image, is not Art and the Catholic University of America. Artists/Photofest unprecedented. These events and written works There has been a relative boom in may simply reflect a desire to find connec- conferences and publications specifically tions between different cultural forms. dedicated to this subject over the past 15 Nonetheless, cinema and the built environ- years. Examples range from the 1990 ment share many points of entry into the Architecture and the Moving Image conference analysis of their creation and use. At the sponsored by the architecture program at most basic level, there is the formalist the Catholic University of America (see the approach toward the study of film archi- Summer 1990 issue of Blueprints for an article tecture or set design, such as the examina- by the conference organizer, Neal I. Payton), tion of a particular studio’s “look” or to the inauguration of the Austria-based methods of fabrication and matte paint- international biennial film+arc.graz ing. Similarly, films can be mined for the in 1993. The Getty Center’s oft-cited 1994 documentary data they provide about real film series and symposium Cine City: Film and locations—though the now commonplace Perceptions of Urban Space, 1895–1995 honored digital alteration of even basic visual one hundred years of filmmaking since information makes such usage increasingly the Lumière brothers’ public projection of difficult. These two approaches comprise an oncoming —commonly accepted perhaps the majority of analyses of the as the “birth” of modern cinema. Another built environment on screen and have pro- centennial-year celebration was Cambridge duced many valuable histories about modes University’s symposium Cinema & Architecture: of film and architectural production. At Méliès, Mallet-Stevens, Multimedia, the the other end of the spectrum is critical proceedings of which were published film theory. Whereas, in a technical in 1997—the same year that The Cinematic City, approach, background is allowed to become edited by David Clark, was published. Soon foreground, close textual analysis tends to after came the 1999 traveling exhibition and fuse a film’s environment, story, and style catalog for Film Architecture: Metropolis to into a unified field of symbols and signs. Bladerunner, and in 2000 editor Mark Lamster A standard interpretation of films offered a compilation of excellent essays often labeled as noir would fall into this

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ARCHITECTURE ON SCREEN

category—in which a dark and threaten- film’s characters use their dining room and ing physical environment is taken to be an front and rear parlors, respectively, Sanders expressionistic representation of the char- provides a fascinating window into elite acters’ internal conflicts. 19th-century perceptions of public and pri- Somewhere between viewing film vate space. Even with the understanding environments as historical artifacts and that film is a product of economic and tech- analyzing them as forms of symbolic repre- nological limitations inasmuch as it is ever sentation is another method—studying the a reflection of the world at large, Sanders’ interaction between filmic representation exercise nicely illustrates the potential that and architectural space, and how such film offers as a tool toward understanding interaction reflects social practice on screen how social practice plays out in real archi- and off. The idea that set design and envi- tectural space. ronment inform a film’s narrative is noth- ing new, and can be found as much in the study of a particular designer’s style as in Film at the National Building Museum the psychological import of a dark alleyway. As declared in its mission statement, the Looking at how architectural space is used National Building Museum “explores the above / Florence Yoch's most familiar on screen, however, is a way to acknowledge world we build for ourselves.” And as prod- design on film is the landscape sur- film as both product and process. Taking uct and reflection of that world, film is a rounding Tara, the beloved home of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the this approach offers insight into not only critical but often underused component Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939). Featured character motivation and the filmmaker’s in the effort to show how architecture is here, from an exhibition brochure, is her set for Romeo and Juliet (George perceptions about the built environment, relevant to the social practice of everyday Cukor, 1936) but can also cast light on how the use of life. Over the past 25 years the Museum below / Visitors spread out on blan- architectural space has changed over time. has celebrated film through exhibitions kets and beach chairs to enjoy the James Sanders uses this approach to good like Personal Edens: The Gardens and Film Sets of “Open Views: Short Films from Around the World” program associat- effect in his book Celluloid Skyline. His discus- Florence Yoch (1999) as well as through the ed with the 2005 exhibition OPEN: New Designs for Public Space. sion of the post-war films Life With Father countless film clips and video productions and The Heiress is a montage of techniques that have been featured within other exhi- and documentary materials: frame analysis, bitions. Up Down Across: Elevators, Escalators information about story origins, production and Moving Sidewalks included spectacular, history, design illustrations, photos of 19th historic footage of such devices filmed by century locations, floor plans and eleva- none other than Thomas Edison. There is tions. Through his analysis of how each the Museum’s long history of screening hard-to-find films, like the terrific screen- ing programmed by Rooftop Films in associ- ation with the exhibition OPEN: New Designs for Public Space—the Museum’s first foray into a Great Hall movie-night. Consider also the Museum’s participation as a venue dur- ing the DC Environmental Film Festival, and public programs like the lecture given by James Sanders, and it becomes clear that the Museum has a long-standing interest in the important role film plays within our culture. The Reel Architecture Film Series is no anomaly then, but an extension of the Museum’s commitment to providing visitors with a rich variety of experiences that sup- port and promote its mission—the popcorn is just a bonus. •

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EDUCATION CityVision Earns Grant from The History Channel

HE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM’S innovative urban study program for Tat-risk youth, CityVision, received a $10,000 grant from The History Channel for the spring 2005 semester. CityVision gives participants the tools to analyze and docu- ment the conditions of existing neighbor- hoods and then propose design solutions addressing the problems and opportunities they have identified. This past spring, about 35 middle and junior high school students explored the neighborhood in Northeast Washington, DC, focusing on proposals for the renovation of the decrepit Alexander Crummell School building. The students produced detailed drawings and models of their proposed solutions, and presented them to a panel of design profes- sionals and community leaders. The History Channel grant was part of the larger Save Our History initiative, above / CItyVision participants, a national program intended to encourage History Channel representatives, preservation of communities’ historic and Museum staff accept a grant from the History Channel. resources. • Photo by NBM staff

left / An Ivy City resident introduces his neighborhood to CityVision participants. Photo by NBM staff

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FEATURE

Bridge Basics Program Kit

by Ann Lambson FTER MORE THAN A YEAR OF WRITING, beam, , cable-stayed, and suspension. FEILD-TESTING, AND DESIGNING, the Students become engineers and work in AMuseum proudly announces the teams to build model bridges that solve publication of the Bridge Basics Program Kit. transportation problems, while balancing This multi-media kit makes one of the issues of geography, materials, cost, and Museum’s most popular school programs, aesthetics. Bridge Basics, available to fifth through The Bridge Basics Program Kit con- ninth grade students across the country. veniently packages together all the materi- Development and production of the kit als necessary for teaching the program, was made possible by the Construction including: Industry Round Table. • A 98-page curriculum guide that A team of educators at the provides teachers an overview of bridge Museum developed preliminary versions engineering fundamentals, detailed of the kit’s components and then tested lessons plans, student worksheets, and them with school teachers in different a wealth of supplementary resources such parts of the country. The final product as vocabulary and lists of books, Web also reflects the input of design educators sites, videos, and organizations; and engineers. • Full-color posters depicting Bridge Basics meets national examples of the five bridge types taught standards of learning in language arts, in the program; math, science, social studies, technology, • Instructions teaching students and visual arts through curriculum-based how to construct models of five bridge lessons that use bridge construction and types using playing cards; enough cards design as a basis for understanding funda- and string are provided to build the first mental structural engineering concepts. set of models; and The hands-on, interdisciplinary lessons • A CD-ROM containing an engag- below / Using instructions and cards, students start the program by building present bridges as structural solutions to ing computer interactive titled “Bridging models, such as this arch bridge, that specific problems and introduce students the Gap” and master copies of worksheets demonstrate how actual bridges work. Photo by Pensaré Design Group to basic bridge types such as truss, and bridge poster images. Like all education programs at the Museum, the Bridge Basics Program Kit inspires students to examine the people, processes, and materials that create build- ings, places, and structures. The Museum’s education programs use the design process as an educational model that requires young people to identify problems or needs, imagine solutions, test them before building a suitable design, and evaluate the product. Learning by doing is central to design education and this Bridge Basics

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BRIDGE BASICS PROGRAM KIT

left / Having learned how bridges work, students solve an engineering challenge by designing and building a cable-stayed bridge. Photo by National Building Museum Staff

below / Bridge Basics Curriculum Plan cover. Designed by Pensaré Design Group Program Kit. Through this process students gain a fresh perspective on their surround- ings and begin to understand how design decisions can have an impact on the environment. A variety of instructors may effectively use the Bridge Basics program: a traditional classroom teacher, youth group leader, or building professional. Building professionals such as engineers can utilize the lessons, either singly or as a series, to teach the complexities of their profession on an appropriate cognitive level for students. For more information about the Bridge Basics Program Kit and how to purchase it, contact Ann Lambson, director of youth education, 202-272-2448, or via email at [email protected]. •

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FEATURE Another Festive Time at the Museum

above / A younster tries his eye at surveying. above right / Curator Chrysanthe Broikos processes “permits” for young builders. bottom left / A visitor gilds a picture frame. bottom right / Another visitor learns to drill. All photos by F.T. Eyre

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ANOTHER FESTIVE TIME AT THE MUSEUM

ORE THAN 3,200 CHILDREN AND ADULTS flocked to the National Building MMuseum on Saturday, September 17 for the Festival of the Building Arts. One of the Museum’s signature events, the annual program allows visitors of all ages to try their hand at a variety of building activi- ties, from placing drywall to laying bricks. Kids, in particular, always enjoy this opportunity for officially sanctioned drilling, hammering, and experimenting with messy substances. The festival included 27 distinct demonstrations and activities. Some visitors took part in a nail-driving contest, while others admired the work of profes- sional trompe l’oeil painters and faux finishers. On the street just outside the Museum, blacksmiths and decorative iron International Union of Bricklayers and top / Drywall finishing—one of many hands-on activities at the workers demonstrated their crafts, and Allied Craftsmen. The Museum is grateful festival. young visitors had an up-close look at to all of these organizations, as well as the Photo by F.T. Eyre large-scale construction equipment, many individuals and companies that took above / Young apprentices prepare part in this year’s festival. to build an arch. including a crane and a concrete mixer. • Photo by Museum Staff The 2005 Festival of the Building Arts was sponsored once again by The Associated General Contractors of America. Washington Parent magazine was the Museum’s local media partner for the event. In-kind support was provided by The Quikrete Companies and the International Masonry Institute and

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SUPPORT

Donors: Adopt-an-Object Program

Charles D. Ablard Sara Ann Bounds Michelle Bowen Jo Ann Duplechin Louise and Harold Engle Builder’s Event Erin J. Flanigan Christine Gill Elika Hemphill UN WAS HAD BY ALL ON AUGUST 11TH William L. Hopkins and Richard B. Anderson Michael Kolakowski as the Museum treated members of Mary E. Lawrence and Peter Buck FThe Builders (those who make unrestrict- Darrell Lemke and Maryellen Trautman ed contributions between $100 and $1,000 Mary and Michael McGill Sakura Namioka per year) to an exclusive reception and Jane W. and Frederick North preview of the upcoming exhibition Claudia Phelps and Theodore W. Baird Cityscapes Revealed: Highlights from the Collection. Karen and Langley Shook Members mingled, enjoyed refreshments, Shar Taylor Jessica and Henry Townsend and viewed an illustrated lecture led by Mary and Andy Zehe curator Chrysanthe Broikos. She discussed the Museum’s vision for the exhibition, which will be the first-ever retrospective of the permanent collection and will feature top right / Museum members and seldom-seen objects that illustrate American staff from the collections department discuss the items on display for architectural history. At the conclusion of conservation. the presentation, Chase Rynd, the Museum’s middle right / Members enjoy the executive director, led The Builders into a reception prior to a special exhibition special temporary gallery to view many of preview discussion. the items selected for the exhibition. This bottom right / Chase Rynd, executive rare opportunity to view elements from the director of the National Building Museum, mingles with members Museum collection up close also afforded at Builders reception. members the chance to “adopt” an object— below / Members study selected items that is, to make a special contribution to from the Museum’s collections and pleadge their conservation support. support the cost of conserving that item.

The Museum would like to thank the Builder members listed above for their sup- port, which ensures that these objects will be returned to their original richness— preserving them for future generations and securing their place in our nation’s collec- tive building history. •

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SUPPORT Thank You!

$100, 000 and above $5,000–$9,999 $1,000–$2,499 Elkus Manfredi Architects Ltd. The Museum thanks American Society of Interior Bloomingdale's Anonymous Jay Epstein these individuals, Designers Chase Commercial The Abramson Family Feiner Family Foundation, National Capital Arts and Real Estate Banking Foundation, Inc. Michael A. Feiner companies, associa- Cultural Affairs Program and the Clark Construction Group, LLC All Stage & Sound, Inc. Christine E. Fisher U.S. Commission of Fine Arts tions and agencies James G. Davis Construction ARCOM Allan Greenberg, Architect LLC for gifts of $250 or Corporation Atmosphere, Inc. Joseph Haley The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Mr. and Mrs. Laurence J. Aurbach Patricia Harrison more received from $50,000 -$99,000 Gladding, McBean The Bank of New York Hartman-Cox Architects June–August 2005. Fannie Mae Foundation Mrs. John W. Hechinger, Sr. Diane Cox Basheer David Hatfield Lafarge North America, Inc. These generous gifts Hines Communities, Inc. Homes Portfolio, LLC Portland Cement Association Holland & Knight BDO Seidman, LLP William L. Hopkins and provide essential Huntington National Bank Brownstein Hyatt Farber Richard B. Anderson support for the Lerner/Cohen/Tannenbaum Families Eric Colbert & Associates, P.C. Kirk R. Hyde Museum's exhibi- $25,000–$49,999 Linda B. and Jonathan S. Lyons Custom Design Concepts David Jameson American Express Company Marriott International, Inc. Architecture + Interiors Michael Kolakowski tions, education David Bonderman J.E. Robert Companies Day & Zimmermann Group, Inc. Mary E. Lawrence and Peter Buck programs, and Forest City Enterprises Hensel Phelps Construction Co. Thornton-Tomasetti Group, Inc. Darrell Lemke and endowment funds. Freddie Mac Community Relations TIAA-CREF Hillier Architecture Maryellen Trautman Donor Assisted Fund of the KA, Inc. Architecture Ligne Roset Georgetown Some of the contri- Community Foundation for the Western Development Corp. National Capital Region Westfield Corporation Inc. Jack Kay Tim Lomax butions listed Turner Construction Company Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership KINCH Construction Sharon B. and James W. Lowe below are in partial Emily and Antoine van Agtmael KPMG LLP Greg D. Luczyk Meredith & Grew Mahan Rykiel Associates, Inc. fulfillment of $10,000–$24,999 Mortgage Bankers Association McCain McMurray larger pledges. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas N. $2,500–$4,999 Diana R. and Charles A. Nathan Joan Meixner Armstrong, III National Society of National Ready Mixed Associated Builders and DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary Professional Engineers Concrete Association Contractors, Inc. Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum, P.C. Kay and Robert Oshel Richard B. Nettler Autodesk, Inc. The History Channel Save Our Robert A. Peck Linda and Rob Obenreder History Grant Program John & Jacolyn Bucksbaum Pulte Homes Susan Piedmont-Palladino and Latham & Watkins Charitable Fund / Matthew Chase W. Rynd Douglas R. Palladino and Carolyn Bucksbaum Liggett-Stashower, Inc. Stephen E. Sandherr Martin H. Poretsky Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Cafritz Stuart A. McFarland Ann Satterthwaite, AICP The Real Estate Roundtable, Inc. Clark-Winchcole Foundation Mid-Atlantic Association of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP Karen and Langley Shook The Walt Disney Company Museums Squire Sanders & Dempsey Bernard Slosberg and GMAC Commercial Mortgage Miller & Long Mary S. Chor Tompkins Builders, Inc. Robert Holleyman, II Rippeteau Architects, P.C. Richard L. Sprott Jessica and Henry Townsend McGraw-Hill Construction David M. Schwarz/Architectural Martin Standiford William I. Miller and Lynne Maguire Services Inc. Cathleen and John L. Sullivan Ohio Savings Bank STUDIOS Architecture Robert D. Uher $250–$999 Perkins & Will Leonard A. Zax Joseph Ventrone The American Institute of Architects The Related Companies, L.P. Margaret Watson and Paul Brown American University Walker & Dunlop WHA Architecture The Honorable Mahlon Apgar, IV Robert Zuraski Shalom Baranes Associates, P.C. Linna M. Barnes and Christian J. Mixter BBGM/Architects & Interiors Matching Gifts Sally and Sanders H. Berk, M.D. ExxonMobil Foundation Nancy and Don Bliss GannettMatch Sara Ann Bounds The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Bowie-Gridley Architects, PLLC M.J. Brodie, FAIA Honorary Gifts Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, LLP The Honorable and Mr. and Mrs. Donald Coupard Mrs. Stuart A. Bernstein Dahlberg Associates in honor of Gerald D. Hines Lisa Delplace and Chris McGahey DiMella Shaffer Joan Eisenstodt and Joel Levy

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MYSTERY BUILDING Mystery Building...Stumped!

OR THE FIRST TIME IN RECENT MEMORY, we received no correct responses Fidentifying the Mystery Building from the summer issue. One respondent was on the right track, guessing that it was a sports facility, but she had the wrong one. The building pictured was, in fact, the old Madison Square Garden, one of several structures to bear this ? name over time. This particular rendition existed from 1925 to 1966, and was designed This issue’s Mystery Building by Thomas W. Lamb. We thought that the is a classic image of the machine in the clues to identifying the building lay in garden. It is part of a larger complex the the distinctive fire escape, and the row location of which may come as a surprise of small pediments along the roofline. to those not familiar with it. Can you It seems, however, that we cropped the identify the building, its location, and photo a little too tightly for anyone to its architect? Send responses to: make a positive ID. The photo, by the way, is from the Museum’s Stewart Brothers Mystery Building Photographic Collection, and will be National Building Museum featured in our upcoming exhibition 401 F Street, NW Cityscapes: Highlights from the Collection. Washington, DC 20001

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Members receive reduced admission to education programs, subscriptions ࠗ My check payable to the National Building Museum is enclosed. to Blueprints and the Calendar of Events, invitations to exhibition openings, and discounts on Museum Shop purchases. For more informa- Please charge my credit card: ࠗ American Express tion about benefits, as well as corporate membership opportunities, ࠗ Visa please call 202.272.2448, ext. 3200. ࠗ MasterCard ࠗ Yes, I want to become a member of the National Building Museum! Please begin my membership at the following level: A C COUNT # E X PIRATION DATE ࠗ Corinthian Pillar $2500 ࠗ Contributing Member $100 NAME AS IT APPEARS ON CREDIT CARD SIGNATURE ࠗ Corinthian $1000 ࠗ Family/Dual $60 ࠗ Sustaining Member $500 ࠗ Individual $40 You can become a Museum member in any of the following ways: ࠗ Supporting Member $250 ࠗ Senior/Student $30 BY MAIL: National Building Museum 401 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20001 NAME BY FAX: 202.376.3436

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CITY/ STATE/ ZIP The National Building Museum is a nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are tax-deductible to the maximum allowable extent of the law. To obtain a copy of the organization’s most recent audited financial statement, please call 202.272.2448 ext. 3500. EMAIL DAYTIME PHONE

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