Здание Патентного бюро: История и реставрация американского искусства и портрета.

Historic building in Washington, D. C., currently serving as an art museum

The Patent Office was founded in 1834, and it moved to the building in 1842. From 1854 to 1857, Clara Barton worked in the building as a clerk to the Patent Commissioner, the first woman federal employee to receive equal pay. In 1865, in 1887 the building's west wing suffered a fire that destroyed some 87,000 patent models; it was restored by Adolf Cluss, 1877–1885, in the style he termed "modern Renaissance" as documented in Patent Office 1877 fire.

During the Civil War, the building was turned into military barracks, hospital, and morgue. Wounded soldiers lay on cots in second floor galleries, among glass cases holding models of inventions that had been submitted with patent applications. The American poet Walt Whitman frequented "that noblest of Washington buildings" and read to wounded men. The building was chosen as the venue for Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ball in 1865. Whitman worked at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, located in the building, from January 24 to June 30, 1865, before being fired for having a copy of Leaves of Grass in his desk.

In the 20th century, the building was occupied by the Patent Office until 1932; it then housed the Civil Service Commission. A street widening sliced away the monumental stairs to its south portico. In 1953, legislation was introduced to demolish the building for a parking lot, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation giving it to the Smithsonian in 1958. This was an important victory for the historic preservation movement in the United States. The Faulkner, Kingsbury & Stenhouse firm of architects supervised the renovation of the interior as museum space starting in 1964. In 1965, the building was designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1995, the Smithsonian revealed the Old Patent Office Building was in serious disrepair. The roof leaked; netting had to be placed in some galleries to catch falling ceiling plaster; window frames were rotting; the floor tiles in the Great Hall were crumbling, and the exterior façade was so degraded it was shedding fist sized pieces of rock.

The building was closed in 2000 for needed repairs. After undergoing extensive renovations, it reopened on July 1, 2006, and was renamed The Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture in honor of a gift from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The building houses the collections of two Smithsonian museums: the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Smithsonian announced the building would close in January 2000 for a two year, $42 million renovation. Hartman Cox Architects was hired to oversee the conservation and repair. The estimated cost of the renovation then grew, initially in 2000 to $110–120 million. The 2000 to 2006 renovation included restoring the porticos modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, a curving double staircase, colonnades, vaulted galleries, large windows, and skylights as long as a city block. According to the Smithsonian Institution, "Extraordinary effort was made to use new preservation technologies to restore the historic fabric of the building and re use historic materials." This led to acrimony between the two museums, and a public debate about which collection deserved more space. The Smithsonian resolved the dispute practically: Art that best fit an exhibition space got it. (For example, since modern art often tends toward large canvases, this art is on the high ceilinged third floor.) By March 2001, the cost of the Old Patent Office renovation rose to $180 million. That month, Nan Tucker McEvoy (a California newspaper heiress and arts patron) donated $10 million for the renovation. The Henry Luce Foundation gave another $10 million later that year. Costs continued to rise, however. Congress appropriated $33.5 million for the renovation, but the reconstruction costs were estimated at $214 million in June 2001 and the museum not scheduled to reopen until 2005. Just a month later, the reopening was pushed back even further to July 2006. In 2003, the government's contribution to the renovation rose to $166 million, and more than $40 million in private funds had been raised. Smithsonian officials subsequently began discussing a major change to the renovation design: Adding a glass roof to the open courtyard in the center of the Old Patent Office Building. Congress approved the change in August 2003. In March 2004, the Smithsonian announced that Foster and Partners, would design the glass canopy. In November 2004, Robert Kogod (a real estate development executive) and his wife, Arlene (heir to Charles E. Smith Construction fortune) donated $25 million to complete the canopy. By then, costs had risen to $298 million with $60 million in private funds still to be raised. Delays in obtaining final NCPC approval and construction materials for the canopy led to a major delay in the roof's installation. In April 2005, the Smithsonian said hat the canopy would not be ready by the time the museum reopened in July 2006, and would be installed in 2007. But opposition to the canopy was rising. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), a federal agency, opposed enclosing the courtyard; the height of the canopy above the cornice line; the bright lighting of the canopy; and the destruction of the landscaping, fountains, and trees in the courtyard. Opposition was also expressed by the U. S. Department of the Interior, the Washington, D. C. State Preservation Office, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Foster and Partners reduced the height of the canopy and altered the way it would be lit in response to these complaints. They also redesigned the canopy to rest on eight steel pillars rather than resting on the roof of the building. The ACHP said the height and lighting changes were not enough, and that the pillars detracted from the beauty of the courtyard. The design changes, coupled with inflation, raised the cost of the canopy to $50 million from $38 million by April 2005. NCPC reversed its two previous preliminary approvals and rejected the design for the glass canopy on June 2, 2005. NCPC officials said they were convinced by the concerns raised by preservationists, and condemned the Smithsonian's design approval process for being exclusionary. The 6 to 5 vote forced work to come to a halt on the courtyard and canopy, and required that the Smithsonian restore the courtyard to its original appearance (including reinstallation of two iron fountains). Unwilling to lose the canopy, the Smithsonian brought five alternatives to the NCPC on August 4. Two included a glass canopy with flat roofs. Three others lowered the canopy by an additional 11.5 feet (4 m) and redirected the lighting to avoid creating a beacon like effect for the canopy at night. All the alternatives changed the proposed landscaping of the new courtyard and added water features. At least one retained the iron fountains. Washington Post architectural critic Benjamin Forgey described the changes as "relatively minor adjustments" and "pretty much the very same design". On September 8, 2005, the NCPC reversed itself yet again. It voted 9 to 2 to accept an alternative which retained the waving glass canopy, eight steel columns (unchanged from the previous design), and nighttime illumination of the previous design. The NCPC also approved the preliminary courtyard landscape design, which was created by noted landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson. Almost none of the complaints raised by historic preservationists were addressed. The delay cost the Smithsonian $10 million. The Smithsonian agreed to call the two museums, the conservation center, courtyard, storage facility, and other operations within the Old Patent Office complex the "Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture" in appreciation for the gift. The Smithsonian said it would call its conservation laboratory the Lunder Conservation Center after receiving a $5.7 million grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation, name the new 356 seat underground auditorium after Nan Tucker McEvoy; designate the courtyard the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard; and name its "open storage" facility the Luce Foundation Center. The two museums would retain their names, however. The Reynolds Foundation donation left just $20 million to be raised.

The National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum reopened on July 1, 2006. The total cost of the building's renovation was $283 million. In 2007, following its conclusion, Washington Post critic Philip Kennicott called the courtyard a "compelling and peaceful public space". Historic preservationists, he observed, were wrong in assuming the glass canopy would turn attention away from the building. To the contrary, he said, "the glass canopy enhances it, drawing out the sandy color and texture of the south wing and the greenish gray granite hues of the north wing" and allowing the details and lines of the building to come into higher relief. He called the courtyard's landscaping "resplendent" and the four floor level water scrims "captivating". He concluded, "Now that it's finished, it's unfortunate that the canopy isn't more visible from the outside (you need to be above street level, in an adjacent building, to see it clearly, and it can be glimpsed peeking above the roofline if seen from a few blocks away). Opponents of the canopy helped ensure that it would be all but invisible from the street. They were wrong. It deserves to be seen." In 2008, the building was named one of the "new seven wonders of the architecture world" by Condé Nast Traveler magazine.