The vibrant, eye-catching works that fill the sculpture garden at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum make it easy to overlook their environs. But since March, when the museum announced plans to redesign it to accommodate a wider variety of programming, the garden has become the subject of intense interest among aficionados of landscape architecture and Washington history. First designed by the architect Gordon Bunshaft, and opened in 1974, the sculpture garden was disparaged by critics for its open and barren concrete layout, which could become sweltering in the summer. In response, the museum commissioned the prominent Washington landscape architect Lester Collins to rethink the space. His renovation, completed in 1981, transformed the garden into the shadier, leafier version visitors experience today, replete with lawns and trees.

Source: New York Times May 16, 2019 15:33 UTC