The National Museum of Asian Art consists of two connected buildings on the National Mall. You can identify the older portion, the Freer Gallery of Art, by its Italianate architecture and a central courtyard that once hosted live peacocks.…
Smithsonian Castle and Gardens
This walk loops through the Smithsonian's historic core, revealing lush hidden gardens, Victorian-era red brick palaces, and iconic modern sculpture courts.
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1. National Museum of Asian Art
2. Enid A. Haupt Garden
The Enid A. Haupt Garden is a four-acre landscape that sits directly behind the Smithsonian Castle. Its most striking feature is a central, symmetrical parterre, where low boxwood hedges and colorful seasonal flowers are arranged in…
3. Smithsonian Castle
The Smithsonian Institution Building is a fortress of red Seneca sandstone, set apart by its nine towers, pointed arches, and crenellated battlements. Designed by architect James Renwick Junior and completed in eighteen fifty-five, this…
4. Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden
The Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden is anchored by a nineteenth-century, three-tiered cast iron fountain. Located directly in front of the Arts and Industries Building and to the east of the Smithsonian Castle, the garden is a quiet…
5. Smithsonian Arts + Industries Building
The Arts and Industries Building is recognized by its polychrome brick facade, which features intricate geometric patterns and towers rising above the National Mall. Designed by architects Adolf Cluss and Paul Schulze and completed in…
6. Mary Livingston Ripley Garden
The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden is a half-acre pocket of curvilinear, raised flower beds squeezed between the Arts and Industries Building and the Hirshhorn Museum. You can pick it out by the ornate nineteenth-century cast-iron fountain…
7. Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden is a sunken, below-ground landscape situated between the museum building and the National Mall. It features paved walkways, lawns, and tiered concrete walls that hold bronze and steel sculptures by artists…