The granite facade of the National Museum of Asian Art features distinct rounded arches that repeat along the building, sheltering a vast collection gathered by Charles Lang Freer. In nineteen oh four, Freer presented his entire trove of…
Smithsonian Castle and Gardens
This walk loops through the Smithsonian's historic core, revealing lush hidden gardens, Victorian-era red brick palaces, and iconic modern sculpture courts.
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1. National Museum of Asian Art
2. Enid A. Haupt Garden
The Enid A. Haupt Garden is a four-acre rooftop garden sitting directly atop the National Museum of African Art and the Sackler Gallery. Beneath the flowerbeds and paths lie these two massive, underground Smithsonian museums. In the…
3. Smithsonian Castle
The Smithsonian Castle displays jagged red sandstone walls and nine distinct towers that separate it from the limestone and marble buildings on the National Mall. James Renwick Junior designed this structure in eighteen forty-six to house…
4. Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden
The Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden displays a formal grid of nearly three thousand roses, framed by low boxwood hedges and stone paths that sit directly between the Smithsonian Institution Building and the National Museum of Natural…
5. Smithsonian Arts + Industries Building
The Arts and Industries Building features a red and buff brick exterior topped with a distinct, multicolored roof that glows against the lawn. Completed in eighteen eighty-one, it served as the first home for the Smithsonian’s vast…
6. Mary Livingston Ripley Garden
The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden stretches between the National Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art, marked by its dense, shaded canopy and curved, brick-lined pathways. While the surrounding Mall is dominated by…
7. Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden sits in a concrete trench six feet below the level of the National Mall. Joseph Hirshhorn, a financier who made his fortune in uranium, donated his massive art collection to the federal government in the…