I.M. Pei's East Building.Solving Problems of Form and Function When Andrew Mellon gave the original West Building of the National Gallery of Art to the nation, he had already anticipated the museum's eventual expansion. In a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, Mellon specified the "Mall building space on the north between Third and Fourth Streets, NW shall be reserved for future extensions." This stipulation in Mellon's gift was later included in the legislation establishing the National Gallery of Art. For many years, Mellon's claim of the adjacent "Mall building space" for the museum seemed premature. The West building opened with many of its galleries incomplete or vacant. By the mid- 1960s, however, circumstances had radically changed. The museum's galleries were filled and new space was needed for large-scale, modern artworks. Mellon had chosen architect John Russell Pope John Russell Pope (April_24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an architect most known for his designs of the Jefferson Memorial (completed in 1943) and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art (completed in 1941) in Washington, DC. , one of the leading architects of the first half of the twentieth century to design the West Building. Not surprisingly, Mellon's son Paul, looked to a forward-thinking architect of the second half of the twentieth century, I.M. Pei, to design the East Building. On June 1, 1978, the East Building was dedicated to the people of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . The Artist Ieoh Ming Pei (pronounced: eeyo ming pay), the son of a banker, was born in Canton, China, and grew up in Shanghai. Pei came to America in 1935 to study architecture, first at the University of Pennsylvania (body, education) University of Pennsylvania - The home of ENIAC and Machiavelli. http://upenn.edu/. Address: Philadelphia, PA, USA. , then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, and Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Pei's reputation and architectural contributions are worldwide. He has designed hotels, hospitals, airports, and corporate centers; some of his best known works are libraries and museums. Major museum commissions include: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, dedicated to recording the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, and other people who have in some major way influenced the music industry, particularly in Museum in Cleveland, the new entrance to the Louvre Louvre (l  `vrə), foremost French museum of art, located in Paris. The building was a royal fortress and palace built by Philip II in the late 12th cent. in
Paris, France, and most recently, the Miho Museum The Miho Museum (Miho Museum) is located near the town of Shigaraki-no-Sato in the Shiga Prefecture of Japan, northeast of Kyoto. The museum was the dream of Mihoko Koyama (after whom it is named), the heiress to the Toyobo textile business, and one of the richest women in Japan. in the Shigaraki
mountains of Japan. Stylistically, Pei is considered by many to be a
modernist because of his strict adherence to geometry and the use of
elementary forms, yet his architecture defies simple categorization.
Working Within Limits The task facing Pei was daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin . He would have to resolve several problems concerning the building's form and function. The small trapezoidal plot reserved for the building was a difficult site for a grand museum structure. Its north side was limited by the angle created by Pennsylvania Avenue Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. joining the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street," it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches and civilian protests. , and its south end abutted the National Mall National Mall: see National Parks and Monuments (table). . Building lines on both sides were restricted because the land was adjacent to the President's inaugural route. Still, the new building on its small site would need to match the monumental scale of the Mall and harmonize with the neoclassical ne·o·clas·si·cism also Ne·o·clas·si·cism n. A revival of classical aesthetics and forms, especially: a. A revival in literature in the late 17th and 18th centuries, characterized by a regard for the classical ideals of reason, form, West Building. Located at the base of Capitol Hill, the building site was a swampy patch of land where early members of Congress once paused to shoot ducks en route to the White House. By the 1960s the land was used for tennis courts, and more importantly, was the last undeveloped plot on the north side of the National Mall. Pei's plan for the East Building employed forms that worked with the shape of the land. Shortly after a meeting with Gallery trustees, Pei jotted down ideas about how best to fit a building into such an irregular plot. He explained, "I sketched a diagonal line across the trapezoid trapezoid, closed plane figure bounded by four line segments, or sides, two of which are parallel and two of which are nonparallel. The parallel sides of a trapezoid are called bases and the nonparallel sides legs; in an isosceles trapezoid the legs are of equal and produced two triangles. That was the beginning." His sketch showed an isosceles triangle that would contain the exhibition space, and a right triangle that would accommodate administrative offices, a library, and a study center for art research. The isosceles triangle ingeniously becomes the unifying motif of the building, repeated in the marble floors, steel frame and glass skylights. Even the building's hexagonal hex·ag·o·nal adj. 1. Having six sides. 2. Containing a hexagon or shaped like one. 3. Mineralogy elevators, and trapezoid-shaped office desks reflect the acute and obtuse ob·tuse adj. 1. Lacking quickness of perception or intellect. 2. Not sharp or acute; blunt. angles of the isosceles triangle. East Meets West A major function of the East Building is to display modern art to its best advantage while at the same time blending with the West Building. The West Building is in the neoclassical style characterized by balance and symmetry, having details related to ancient Greek Noun 1. Ancient Greek - the Greek language prior to the Roman Empire Greek, Hellenic, Hellenic language - the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European family of languages and-Roman architecture. To visually unite the buildings, Pei used the same pink Tennessee marble from the original quarry of the West Building for the East Building exterior. Marble dust was mixed with concrete to create the beautifully colored interior walls. Another unifying factor is the alignment of the East Building's main entryway along the West Building's east-west axis. The East Building is the only museum bordering the Mall that does not have an entrance directly facing the Mall. In addition to the invisible, but powerful axial link, the plaza space between the two buildings establishes a visual transition through elements such as marble paving stones and glass pyramids that reference the East Building's space frame ceiling. Pei's glass pyramids have become his signature design feature and can be found at several museums he has designed in recent years. The Interior Once inside, Pei wanted visitors to feel a sense of excitement yet not feel overwhelmed. Beyond the entryway into the East Building the space fans out into a large atrium. The openness of the space invites visitors to look up and let their eyes travel around the building. Throughout the building, Pei creates patterns with marble floor tiles and panes of glass or "skylights" in the space frame ceiling, principally using the triangle shape. The skylights above the atrium echo the glass pyramids on the plaza. Pei realized that as vital and exciting as the interior seemed, some of the hard-edged lines should be softened if the space was to feel warm and inviting. To accomplish this, he designed large round planters which would contain ficus trees. This would provide a sense of scale to the large, open atrium. He also felt that abstract sculpture would provide scale and invigorate in·vig·or·ate tr.v. in·vig·or·at·ed, in·vig·or·at·ing, in·vig·or·ates To impart vigor, strength, or vitality to; animate: "A few whiffs of the raw, strong scent of phlox invigorated her" the large modern building. Commissioned Works Several abstract works were commissioned by major artists of the late twentieth-century. The huge, biomorphic forms of Henry Moore's Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece located on the outdoor porch of the East Building, provide a striking contrast to the building's soaring acute angles. On the interior, Alexander Calder's Untitled (Mobile) and Joan Miro and Josef Royo's massive tapestry Woman enliven en·liv·en tr.v. en·liv·ened, en·liv·en·ing, en·liv·ens To make lively or spirited; animate. en·liv  en·er n. the
atrium space with their large biomorphic shapes and bold primary colors.
From above, Calder's gracefully rotating mobile creates a sense of
dynamism; the tapestry's textures similarly animate the wall with a
rich, wooly wool·y adj. & n. Variant of woolly. Adj. 1. wooly - having a fluffy character or appearance flocculent, woolly soft - yielding readily to pressure or weight 2. surface. The large, black and white calligraphic cal·lig·ra·phy n. 1. a. The art of fine handwriting. b. Works in fine handwriting considered as a group. 2. Handwriting. forms of Robert Motherwell's painting Reconciliation Elegy elegy, in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse (i.e., couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line). The form dates back to 7th cent. B.C. in Greece and poets such as Archilochus, Mimnermus, and Tytraeus. provide a powerful, but sober counterpoint to the building's soft pink marble interior. Interpreting Architecture Architecture is our oldest and most accessible art form. It is ever present in our lives and has been throughout history. But for these very reasons we sometimes take it for granted. Therefore, using fresh eyes, reconsider the buildings around you. When looking at architecture ask the following questions: What is a building's function? How does its architecture serve that function? With what kind of land did the architect have to work? What materials are used? What shapes are most prevalent? Which colors, textures, and decorative motifs are present? RELATED ARTICLE: Activities/Extensions Elementary Write a poem or draw a picture of your favorite place. Think about how you feel when you are there. What kinds of activities do you do there? Does it remind you of any sights, sounds, and tastes? Middle School The primary shape of the East Building is the triangle. Based on the triangle, Pei included other related forms, such as the tetrahedron tetrahedron: see polyhedron. and the trapezoid, and incorporated them into the building's structure and decor. How many shapes or three-dimensional forms can you create by combining similar and different types of triangles? (squares, rectangles, and diamonds) Use straws and thin wire to create your ideas in three dimensions. Imagine an office--desks and bookshelves included--in which the comers are not squared off, that is, they do not have right angles. What benefits or problems could you foresee? High School Compare and contrast a historic building to a classical building in your vicinity. Consider style as a reflection of taste and technology of the eras in which they were built, as well as each building's function. Research their architects and benefactors. How do the buildings reflect their influences? RELATED ARTICLE: What is a Mall? A seventeenth-century ballfield. A broad, grassy walkway. A cluster of shops. What do they have in common? They are all malls. The word mall is derived from the term pall-mall alley, a grassy strait where pall-mall, a game similar to croquet croquet (krōkā`), lawn game in which the players hit wooden balls with wooden mallets through a series of 9 or 10 wire arches, or wickets. The first player to hit the posts placed at each end of the field wins. , was played in seventeenth-century England. By definition, a mall is an area often set with shade trees and designed as a promenade. The shopping mall was originally an area featuring a variety of shops surrounding an open-air concourse. The Mall referred to in this article is the National Mall, a 146 acre grassy promenade in Washington, D.C. which is bounded by the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Gallery of Art, several Smithsonian museums, the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Vietnam Veterans Memorial, war memorial in Washington, D.C., built 1982. Designed by the American sculptor and architect Maya Ying Lin, it is a sloping, V-shaped, 493-ft (150-m) wall of highly polished black granite that descends 10 feet (3. , and the Korean War Veterans Memorial Korean War Veterans Memorial: see National Parks and Monuments (table). . Resources Daniels, Maygene, "From the Archives: A Design for the National Gallery of Art: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of the East Building," National Gallery of Art Bulletin, No. 19, (Spring 1998): 32-37. The National Gallery Builds (cat. no. 133/vc 133) and A Place to Be: The Construction of the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, 1968-1978 (cat. no. 134). To order on free loan, write to Dept. of Education Resources, Extension Programs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 20565 or download mail-in order form online at www.nga.gov/resources/ep-index.htm. Please include catalog number. Heidi Hinish is the family program coordinator, Department of Teacher and School Programs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Heidi Hinish is the family program coordinator, Department of Teacher and School Programs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. |
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