Smithsonian Institution, in Washington D.C., is going to demolish its stepping pyramidal restaurant, “Wright Place”, at the National Air and Space Museum to leave room for the Bezos Learning Center. This new building will be part of a larger renovation project, which has began in 2018.
Glass pyramid by Gyo Obata in Washington DC demolished to build Bezos Learning Center
Closed since 2017, it was built in 1988 as an extension of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
Image courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine
Image courtesy of National Capital Planning Commission
Image courtesy of National Capital Planning Commission
Image courtesy of National Capital Planning Commission
Image courtesy of National Capital Planning Commission
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- Lucia Brandoli
- 12 April 2022
Closed since the year before, the glass and iron restaurant was built in 1988, as an addition to the marble museum designed in 1976. The whole complex was designed by the Japanese-Armerican architect Gyo Obata and his firm Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK).
The museum aim was to house massive objects, like aircrafts and spacecrafts, and to host an expected 50,000 daily visitors. Today, with an average of 267,000 daily visitors, it needed a revitalization.
The historic preservation specialist for the Smithsonian, Carly Bond, explains that “after careful evaluation, the restaurant addition was determined to be non-contributing to the historic significance [of the Air and Space Museum]”, therefore can not achieve landmark status.
The demolition of the glass-pyramid will start this spring. The site it currently occupies will see the construction of a three-story, 50,000-square-foot educational center, whose construction will be made possible thanks to a $200 million donation from Jeff Bezos.