Alert: National Gallery May Expand to FTC Building

This is a tired old chestnut. Every so often, one particular member of Congress stirs the pot to get the FTC ousted from its building so NGA can take the space. There is significant opposition in Congress and at the GSA (which owns government buildings). FDR laid the cornerstone for the FTC building and spoke of it as the FTC’s “permanent home.” While some at the NGA may have building lust, it seems very unlikely that this will ever happen.

*sound of my deflating balloon*

Well, the Smithsonian Reynold’s Center started off as a patent office, so I’m still hoping.

Where is the first underground walkway?

Crystal City.

Between the East and West buildings…

YUCK! An underground walkway? Let’s leave that to the blandness of Northern Virginia. Get out on the street people and look at what’s going on!!! Connect with your city and it’s energy!!!

The underground walkway between the east and west buildings takes you through the NGA’s dining facility and one of its gift shops, and you pass by a big window that gives you a view from sort of beneath one of the big fountains. I like it.

The whole entire project of the Grand Louvre is underground and I.M. Pei is a genius for it. Maybe if people in DC put in a little more faith in their architecture they could do some even more amazing things!

I agree with #7 and #8, an underground walkway can be an asset, IF done properly.

Other cities with amazing underground include Toronto and Montreal. They are so lively, that you don’t even know that you are “under”.

Just think how nice it would be to not have to dodge cabbies, buses and others who are trying to run you over in the middle of the crosswalk.

My Crystal City comment was a joke, fyi. I love the underground at the National Gallery. I think my favorite part is bouncing along the moonwalk-like moving walkway. And yes, the underground at the Louvre is amazing. But if I am walking from Penn Quarter to the Mall, I’d probably prefer to do it above ground.

If the NGA were to move into the FTC building, where would FTC relocate to? Does FTC need more space or to consolidate into one building? Does NGA need more space?

City life is about walking outside, not in some dark, stinky tunnel. What should be done is burying some of the streets, a la Chicago’s Lower Wacker Drive [“Lower 7th Street” – now that’s a thought!] There’s already far too much faux downtown here [see P. Kennicott’s 11/18 Post article: 7th Street “is a suburbanite’s fantasy of urban life”] – we don’t need more. We can always go to Crystal City and Pentagon City for the faux downtown experience.

“City life is about walking outside, not in some dark, stinky tunnel.”

Have you even BEEN in the NGA’s underground walkway? It’s nothing remotely close to a “big stinky tunnel”. It sounds all nice and enlightened-like to chastise those who clamor for a little escape from the elements now and then (how very “unurban-like” to want to walk indoors when out in the big city!), but the truth is there will be times when it’s raining buckets, freezing cold, or scorching hot when a walkway protected from the unsavory elements would be a welcome respite.

As far as “faux downtown” goes, you may not personally like the 7th St. vibe, but it’s not unlike the downtowns of other major American cities: Times Square, Newbury St. in Boston, Michigan Ave. in Chicago, to name but a few. A “real” downtown is in the eye of the beholder…but i suppose that bashing Gallery Place and the loser suburbanites who trek into the city to spend their tax dollars at so-called contrived neighborhoods just plays better.

I’ve lived in Logan Circle for years, and enjoy the many facets of city living that DC offers–including the occasional foray into Gallery Place’s suburban never-never land. Who cares if it’s not someone’s version of what an “authentic” downtown is?