Page 67 - ArchDC_Winter 2019

Auditorium Photo © Ulf E. Wallin

have a modern workplace with beautiful common-use areas.
As for the public, one thing to know is that many of the key
spaces—the Restoration zone spaces—are accessible and are
proximate to one another: these include the C Street lobby, the
auditorium and library, the Interior Museum, and most notably,
the venerable Indian Craft Shop. Because one must go through a
security gantlet to see them, the latter two are a staple on lists of
“Secret Washington Attractions.”
The work of the past 23 years not only made these amenities
that much more appealing, it greatly improved the security
process, too. Even after standards were dramatically tightened
following 9/11, SBA was able to tuck the scanners and employee
turnstiles in a secondary space off the lobby. One now enters
the lobby, restored to its 1936 glory, without the distractions
of modern security. It is a discrete little example of how SBA
understood “modernization” in its best sense: improvement to
both the architecture and the user experience.
Library Reading Room. Photo © Ulf E. Wallin

INTERIOR MOTIVES 65