modern interior design washington dc
the original visitor center opened in 1995it was a bit of a shoestring budget and some exhibits were built at the last minute in the nooksand crannies in that beautiful building i think from the beginning we knew this project required very carefulcoordination of the architecture and the interpretive message so, it became pretty clear early that the roles of the white house, as park, as home, as office, as museum, as stage and ceremonial space,
were the best way to go – of a broad approach to telling the story. and with the tourist in mind whocomes to washington, that may spend 45 minutes total at thevisitor center before they go on to many other free museums along themall typically in exhibits that have beautiful artifacts and collections, you want to have a rather dramatic setting for those objects, and here we couldn’t fight the daylight, so we tried to use materials and backlit panels that created this kind of luminosity and this very brilliant,
subtle light so that nothing was overwhelmed or spot lit, but it creates this very lovely backdrop of glow. typically exhibits are done in a blackbox environment and the architecture just provides a space for the exhibitsand there's no setting for those that the architect does, the exhibit designers and the interpretive designers do that. working with a historic hall there was a lot of attention to the discipline of what that space needed to be
and i think that was an enriching experience and i hope one that can be used as a potential benchmark for some that are trying to do the same kinds of things the white house is such an important symbol to people and i think that if we did our job, that hopefully after they leave that experience they feel that same sense of respect for this building that has seen and lived democracy, ebb and flow, through the time of our nation,
and i think that we took on that challenge, i hope we achieved it, we’ll see after visitors come through and look at their faces.