Museums Reopen to a Brand-New View

One huge piece of the transformation is not in place. A glass canopy over the fortresslike building's 28,000-square-foot interior courtyard will not be ready until late 2007. British architect Norman Foster, who created London's famous "Gherkin" office tower and the glass dome atop Berlin's Reichstag, designed the glass roof of interconnected vaults.

The Smithsonian commissioned Foster late in the game -- in 2004. The idea was to convert the courtyard into an all-weather setting for events. And officials hope the covering, lit softly and peering into Washington's night, will be a landmark itself. The plan ran into an unexpected roadblock. The National Capital Planning Commission, which had to approve the final design, twice gave preliminary approvals but last year rejected Foster's concept, complaining it was too high. Then, three months later, the commission reversed its ruling after the museum agreed to use different glass and redirect interior lights so the roof would not look like a beacon.

The delay cost the Smithsonian $10 million and raised the total cost of the courtyard and enclosure to $112 million. About 20 percent of the steel girders for the canopy are in place.

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The Patent Office Building was authorized in 1836 by Andrew Jackson. Displays of patent models were the main attraction. By 1857, it had 100,000 visitors a year.

Clara Barton was hired as a Patent Office clerk in 1854 and was the first female government employee to receive the same pay as a man. During the Civil War, Walt Whitman worked as a nurse in the building when it was used as a temporary infirmary.

In 1955, the building was about to be torn down for a parking garage, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower saved it from the wrecking ball. The Smithsonian was given the landmark by Congress in 1958.

The museums opened in 1968 and attracted a steady stream of visitors, though the attendance in the years before they closed, 400,000 to 500,000 people a year, is a trickle compared with the National Air and Space Museum visits of several million.

The directors hope the changes they've made, and the revitalized neighborhood, will change that.

The Smithsonian is spending $298 million. Congress contributed $166 million. The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation's $75 million contribution supported the renovation and the purchase of the Stuart "Lansdowne" from its British owner, as well as special placement of the portrait.

The cost of the original building: $2.3 million.