Design
How America's Oldest Art Museum Building Got a High-Tech Makeover
The restoration of the Renwick Gallery in D.C. to its original state has involved some advanced engineering work.
When contractors tore into the walls of the Renwick Gallery, they found all kinds of unexpected surprises. Liquor bottles that were more than 100 years old. A pair of long-forsaken shoes. A scrap of wood inscribed with the name of a Union Army corporal and a date from 1867.
What workers didn’t expect to find inside the building, once home to the first museum in America, was so much extra construction.