The National Gallery of Art, East and West Wings
When I. M. Pei's East Wing opened, I stood on the precipice of attending architecture school. Despite seeing numerous publications covering this addition to the National Mall, I did not visit the building until many years later while working at the late, great master’s office in New York City. The building remained a stranger to me, as I would visit more for the art than for its architecture, despite my growing appreciation for architectural nuances. It was only during a recent trip to DC for an AIA convention that I fully comprehended and appreciated the building and its contribution to American, if not global, architecture.
The East Wing is a product of a mind conceived at a time before computers aided architects in realizing forms that eluded previous generations. Pei belonged to the generation trained with pencil and tracing paper, and he conceived the building with minimal use of automated tools, relying instead on his exemplary imagination and a keen ability to communicate his vision accurately and precisely.
I entered the East Wing through the West Wing to fully experience the original building and its galleries before the East Wing was constructed. The compartmentalism of the original building, like the art it houses, presents an enfilade of rooms with spatial articulation composed of strongly marked architectural thresholds between rooms. Here, each room as a gallery signifies a specific time, place, collection of artists, or artistic style. Just as the rooms reflect their time and place, so does the art within, reflecting individuals, events, and places in history. The adjacency of galleries and periods helps curate a coherent narrative.
The representational quality of art serves as both a historic record and a contribution to the study of art itself. The collection of muses, gods, and goddesses illustrates the creative liberties artists take to depict worldly subjects. The muse hovers above the earth, a god stands alongside its favorite son. Art, it seems, has always invited a suspension of reality to merge the mundane and the poetic into a unified world of awe and promise.
The mission of the East Wing differs from that of the West Wing due to the former housing modern collections while the latter preserves the past. This spatial distinction is significant as modern art transcends specific time and place, aiming for universal qualities. Designing a modern gallery requires breaking away from traditional boundaries.
Pei's East Wing design embodies three aspects that make it a sensational work of art in itself, fully acknowledging the building's programmatic requirements. I hesitate to mention functionality, as the East Wing is more a symphony of purpose than a list of singular requirements.
Context: What is delightful about the East Wing is its interdependence on the West Wing. This contrast contextualizes and emphasizes the seismic shift between classical and modern art. While the West Wing’s art is foundational and stands independently, the East Wing relies more on its context of discovery and intentional departure from the past. Together, they represent both memory and discovery, making viewing both wings essential to understanding their contexts and offerings.
Site: Pei intuitively translated the unusual site geometry into the building’s final extruded forms. These solemn forms stand as abstract, independent sentinels, incorporating Washington’s street grid into block-like forms. Despite laying bare the complexities of the street grid, Pei’s design goes beyond mere spatial arrangement to create a cohesive structure.
Building: Entering the East Wing from the street, one encounters a low, compressive space leading into a two-story area with a lower gallery floor. This space moves upward, downward, across, and through, satisfying expectations of surprise and delight without sacrificing context.
Entering from the West Wing, however, visitors do not experience the same unfolding spatial narrative typical of an I. M. Pei building. Despite this, within the context of the National Gallery as a unified building, the preferred entry stream is from the West Wing. The two wings are connected by a concourse level, gift shop, and food court. On the concourse level, trapezoidal skylights and a water feature mark a spatial threshold. Sauntering eventually leads to the expansive East Wing lobby, where upward gazes merge chambered spaces with promises of discovery under a cloud of skylights.
Pei's rendering of building forms derived from the site plan is enhanced by triangular glass skylights with metal scrims. Standing in this space, Pei’s reductive detailing does not lead to boredom but rather joy in its simplicity and thoughtfulness. For instance, each skylight structure is supported by a reflective stone plinth flanked by linear air vents disguised as voids. This quiet detail contributes to the building’s singularity and success.
The voluminous enclosure reduces limestone walls, glass skylights, exposed concrete lintels serving as ceilings, and geometric floor tiles mirroring the street grid. This symphony of materiality exemplifies modernity and celebrates artistic interpretation. With its ordered detailing and comparative architectural approach, the East and West Wings are not just two separate buildings, nor are their collections and art.