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The visitor center space before renovation.
Photo courtesy of SmithGroupJJR
The space following renovation.
Photo © Maxwell MacKenzie material,” Greenbaum explained. “Corian is very forgiving and
events of 9/11, the facility’s mission evolved to primarily serve
as an educational center for nearly 700,000 visitors per year.”
The renovated 16,000-square-foot facility, which opened in
September, includes permanent displays with interactive exhibits
on the role of the White House as home, office, ceremonial stage,
and museum, as well as a space for temporary exhibits, a theater,
a retail shop, and restrooms.
70 WAIT AND SEE
The permanent exhibits are arranged in a center-axis pattern
that respects the hall’s classical symmetry, with enough room
between them to accommodate large crowds during peak tourist
season. The display cases and seating benches are made of Corian
and another synthetic material called 3form. “Corian is an opaque
solid surface material, while 3form is a translucent solid surface
can handle a lot of wear and tear, so we used it on surfaces that
were subject to high traffic. 3form was used on the central elements,
among other millwork, to create a softness to the linear forms.”
The largely white color of the display cases and benches alludes to
the exterior color of the White House and provides a gentle contrast
to the grey limestone and the brown-toned coffered ceiling.
“We purposefully, in working with the architectural team,
talked about having a very minimalist palette,” said Cybelle Jones,
principal and creative director at Gallagher & Associates and exhibit
design leader. “I think that was driven, first, by differentiating new
and old so that we weren’t competing with the decorative nature
of the hall.” The resulting overall color scheme of a largely white
insertion into a somewhat darker historic envelope is comparable
to the highly regarded design for the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
The tall windows running along the front of the Commerce
Department building bathe the great hall in a gentle northern light.
That’s a nice feature for an artist’s studio, but for an exhibit space,
it can create a design challenge.
“Typically, exhibits are done in a black box environment,”
Greenbaum said. So the question became, “how can we do
exhibits with an interior historic hall using daylight? That was
something that we started to look at with the Normandy American
Visitor Center.”
“Usually, in exhibits that have beautiful artifacts and collections,
you want to have a rather dramatic setting for those objects,” Jones
said. But in this case, “we couldn’t fight the daylight. So we tried to
use materials and backlit panels that created this kind of luminosity
and this very brilliant, subtle light, so that nothing was overwhelmed
or spot-lit, [and the light instead] creates this very lovely backdrop
of glow.”
The two-year renovation “was accomplished while respecting
the historic fabric of Baldrige Hall and in compliance with the
Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic
Properties,” Greenbaum, said. “Because every surface was an
original, historic finish, no new construction attaches to the historic
finishes anywhere in the space.” The design “exemplifies the
National Park Service’s larger mission of preservation of the
nation’s heritage, stewardship of the environment, and accessibility
for all visitors.”
The project incorporates sustainability features such as energy-
efficient LED lighting and low-flow faucets and toilets in the rest-
rooms, and is aiming for LEED-CI Silver certification. The design
is also highly ADA compliant. “When I think of universal design,
it’s better design for everybody, said Jonathan Cantwell of
SmithGroupJJR. “One of the things that I always like to say is to
design for your future self.”
The total cost of the Visitor Center was $12.5 million, with
$7.5 million provided by the White House Historical Association,
and the remaining $5 million by David M. Rubenstein, a prominent
businessman and philanthropist who has funded a number of
civic and cultural projects in the Washington area.