To interest donors in a plan that includes HVAC upgrades and the repositioning of loading docks, it helps to throw in a few dramatic flourishes. That’s the lesson of the Smithsonian Institution’s new master plan, made public today in Washington, D.C., by the Institution’s secretary, Wayne Clough, and his architect of choice, Bjarke Ingels, of the Copenhagen- and New York-based Bjarke Ingels Group.
Much of the plan, which will take decades and at least $2 billion to implement (and is dependent on a mix of public and private funds), involves invisible infrastructure improvements, which, Clough said, are “hard to get people to write checks for. You have to show them the big concept.” That big, or BIG, concept includes a lawn between the Smithsonian’s historic Castle and Independence Avenue that curls upward at its corners.
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