Freer Gallery Courtyard Improvements

Freer Gallery Courtyard Improvements

Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC

To re-open the celebrated Freer Gallery courtyard, which had been closed to the public since the early 1990s, accessibility improvements were necessary. After careful consideration and study, the design solution was to provide a connection from the west loggia to the north end of the courtyard with a sloped walkway that borrows its detailing from the original building fabric. Existing stonework was salvaged and reinstalled, and where new paving and wall panels were constructed, the same stone species used on the original work was used and new dark bronze handrails match the vocabulary of the building’s original architectural metalwork.