The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian occupies 4.25 acres on the National Mall. The museum is constructed from limestone from Minnesota. (Micah Walter, GNS)

 

Indian museum building is
striking addition to National Mall

By Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - The home of the Smithsonian's new National Museum of the American Indian reflects native people's connection to the universe, from its outdoor landscaping to its 120-foot-tall, light-filled rotunda.

The 250,000-square-foot building, which sits on what was the last open site on the National Mall, faces east toward the rising sun and the U.S. Capitol.

Clad in textured, wheat-colored Kasota limestone from Minnesota, the five-story building's flowing, curved lines are reminiscent of rocks shaped by wind and water over thousands of years.

''Its strong horizontal lines ... suggest a close connectedness to and respect for the land on which it sits and out of which it almost seems to grow,'' said Museum Director W. Richard West Jr.

The 4.25-acre site is landscaped to depict four habitats treasured by Indian people - upland hardwood forest, wetlands, meadowland and terraced cropland planted with corn, beans and squash. More than 40 large uncarved rocks, called grandfather rocks because they are the elders of the landscape, sit around the building.

An outdoor amphitheater and fire pit and offering area will be used for native ceremonies and cooking demonstrations.

The paving pattern for the welcome plaza outside the east entrance plots the configuration of the planets on Nov. 28, 1989, the date that federal legislation was introduced in Congress to create the museum.

Just inside on the first floor is a 120-foot-wide, 120-foot-high rotunda with a skylight and eight acrylic prisms, mounted in a south window, that project moving rainbows on the rotunda floor. Called the Potomac Rotunda, this area will be a gathering place for cultural and social events.