Buildings of the Smithsonian Institution

1923-1928, Charles Adams Platt

In 1904 Charles Lang Freer donated his collection of American and Asian Art to the nation, a gift formally accepted by the Smithsonian Board of Regents in 1906. In 1913 Freer asked Charles Adams Platt to design a new museum for his collection. Platt drew initial sketches on stationary of the Plaza Hotel in New York City and on December 30, 1913, he signed a contract with the Smithsonian Institution. In January 1915 the Board of Regents selected the site for the Freer Gallery of Art adjacent to the Smithsonian Institution Building.

The final building plans were approved in May 1916 by the Commission of Fine Arts and the Board of Regents. However, World War I caused a delay in the construction of the building and Charles Lang Freer died on September 24, 1919, before the museum had been completed. The Freer Gallery was constructed of gray granite from Milford, Massachusetts. Overall massing was determined in harmony with the West Wing and Range of the Smithsonian Institution Building and the guidelines of the Senate Park Commission. Platt designed a single-story building with a rusticated façade in the style of an Italian mannerist building. The interior was designed with a central courtyard enclosed by interior corridors and gallery spaces. The art collection was shipped to the Smithsonian Institution in 1920 but the museum did not open to the public until May 2, 1923.

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