Page 24 - ArchDC Spring_2017

ArchDC Spring 2017.qxp_Spring 2017 2/22/17 2:47 PM Page 22

Photo © Alan Karchmer/NMAAHC
Close-up of the ornamental metal screen.

Entry portico of the NMAAHC, with shallow pool symbolizing the ocean
that African captives crossed on their way to enslavement in America. Photo © Alan Karchmer/NMAAHC Contemplative Court.

would have been a welcome urban gesture, extending As the design for the corona continued to develop,
almost to the Constitution Avenue sidewalk and thus the museum’s founding director, Lonnie G. Bunch III,
helping to reinforce the building line along that thor- suggested that the pattern of the metalwork in the screen be
oughfare, the revised design resulted in a much stronger modeled after traditional wrought iron grills designed and
architectural image. The two-tiered corona grew to three often fabricated by slaves in the antebellum South. Seeking
levels suspended over a glass-enclosed base, yielding a a more modern aesthetic, Adjaye and his colleagues adapted
geometrically purer, more elegant form that holds its own and abstracted Bunch’s idea, creating a geometrical design
amidst the iconic buildings in its vicinity. The revised that is historically evocative yet undeniably contemporary
corona is also closer in spirit to the carved wooden pillars in character. From a distance, the screen appears to be
that inspired it, as demonstrated by an exemplary work composed of identical panels; in fact, they vary in the
by the influential Yoruban artist Olowe of Ise (1873-ca. density of metalwork, with panels of differing porosity
1938) that is now on loan to the NMAAHC. Olowe’s placed strategically so as to modulate the amount of
piece consists of a human figure crowned by a somewhat sunlight entering the building while also helping to
precarious-looking triad of inverted, elongated, and emphasize key vistas from within.
truncated pyramids. In the “crown” of the carved post, as As is often the case, practical and budgetary consid-
on the building, three tiers make for a stronger composition erations also dictated changes to the original design.
than two. Bronze proved to be too heavy for the ornamental screen,

22 A DREAM DEFERRED NO MORE