Last updated: July 20, 2023
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Podcast 114: Conserving a Building and Continuing a Mission at the National Museum of Women in the Arts
A Museum for Women in the Arts
Photo by Thomas H. Field, provided courtesy of NMWA
Gordon Umbarger: Gordon Umbarger. I'm the Director of Operations for the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Sandra Vicchio: And I'm Sandra Vicchio. I'm the Design Architect and project lead on the renovations of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Gordon Umbarger: The National Museum of Women in the Arts was established in 1987, which just happens to be one year after H.W. Jansen's History of Art, that's a popular art history textbook since 1962, one year after they had mentioned women artists in that textbook for the first time. We have a social media campaign that's grown in recent years that I think encapsulates our mission and reason for existence pretty well. It's called #5WomenArtists, and if you go out and you ask people, "Can you name five women artists?" It turns out many people can't and if they can, it probably takes longer for them to think of five women artists than it does for them to think of five male artists, for example.
The bottom line is that women have never been treated equally in the art world. And even today, they remain dramatically underrepresented and undervalued on museum walls, in galleries, at auction houses. And of course, this is an imbalance that goes well beyond the art world, but art plays a vital role in our society in exploring issues of gender. So that's why our mission is so important. We are the first museum in the world solely dedicated to championing women through the arts. And we exhibit a wide range of works from established artists, as well as emerging artists, in all types of media, painting, photography, sculpture, video.
Sandra Vicchio: The building was designed in the early 20th century by Waddy Butler Wood. He was a well-known Washington D.C. architect. It's a classical revival building. Within that strength, there's some very beautiful and even delicate details like the terracotta cornices and the stamped zinc metal cladding that creates the facade of the sixth floor. Inside is the beautiful Great Hall, which is beloved by everyone. And then there's its location, which is unparalleled for an institution like this, and would certainly be hard to replicate in today's world.
Gordon Umbarger: One of the things that has interested me the most about the building is the history of it and the fact that it's had so many different uses throughout its life. It was purpose built as a Masonic temple. The Freemasons, of course, being an organization that did not admit women. So now we have a museum of women in the arts, a 180 there. So many other uses in between and concurrently. The ground floor of the building was one of the premier movie theaters in Washington for many decades. There were offices upstairs for all types of different uses, including the George Washington University's law school. And then the site next door, which is the site of our 1997 addition to the building for a while was a theater of movies of not such prominence, let's say.
Renovating an Iconic Building
Rendering provided courtesy of NMWA
Catherine Cooper: What is your background and how did you get involved with the museum and the restoration project?
Gordon Umbarger: So I joined the museum 10 years ago. I have a background in facilities management and also information technology in a number of different things. My job sort of is a big tent role. My desk has a lot of different things on it.In 2014, as far as how we got the restoration initiative going, NMWA was awarded a grant from the IMLS funded conservation assessment program. The program has two components, there's a collections assessment, which for the museum was headed up by Wendy Jessup & Associates, and then there's also a building assessment, headed up by Watson & Henry Associates. And so of course, those two go hand in hand in a place like a museum, the collections and the building, especially when you think about the impact that the condition of the building envelope, the function of the mechanical systems, have on the conservation environment for the works that are building houses.
So they delivered their report in early 2015, and it was sort of a broad-brush framework, forgive me for using an art metaphor, the organization's priorities, moving forward, the things that we needed to focus on in terms of staff time and in terms of investment. At that point, we were coming up on 30 years since the building's last major renovations, so many of those recommendations in the report were interrelated and overlapping, literally and figuratively, systems that are stacked on and interrelated to each other. The bottom-line recommendation from that report was that the organization be strategic about it and assemble a team of professionals to move forward with what they call a facilities preservation plan study. And one of the firms recommended to lead that effort was Sandra Vicchio & Associates.
Sandra Vicchio: A project of this complexity does not happen without a whole lot of people. It certainly would never happen without the support of the board of trustees and the donors. I think it's really important to recognize the role that philanthropy plays in institutions like this.I went to NMWA with Tracy Marcotte, the lead from CVM, who's our envelope and structural engineer, and we met with Gordon and he said, "Well, okay, let's get going."
Gordon Umbarger: There might have been a little more to it than that, but ...
Building a Team
Sandra Vicchio: It was a little more complicated than that.
Tracy is a PhD in material science engineering and she thinks at a level that exceeds the way that many people I've worked with in my career think, because her training just takes her to a whole other level. That's been incredibly helpful on this project. As for me, I studied architecture at the University of Virginia where I received my bachelor's and master's degrees. I've always had an interest in public buildings, museums, and libraries. Before I started my own firm, 10 years ago, I worked on projects at Monticello, Mount Vernon, Winterthur, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and a whole series of various library projects, including the Pratt Library in Baltimore. I love the idea of lifelong learning and I love the idea of preservation of both the buildings, which I always look at as the largest object in a museum or a library's collection. It's got to be the largest and probably the most expensive object. I love the idea of taking care of those things and of shoring up the world moving forward.
I assembled this team and NMWA was very open about who I brought in. I brought in a team of really excellent design professionals with whom I had a lot of experience. We kicked off the project on a Friday in January. That was our first meeting all together on the project in the building. We'd all had a building tour and we sat down and talked about what we were going to do. And that weekend, this freak snowstorm comes through and it comes up from the south, which is very unusual in Washington, D.C. It loads a lot of snow on the south facing roof of NMWA and then rips down about a hundred feet, linear feet, of the historic gutter above the sixth floor.
Tracy is a PhD in material science engineering and she thinks at a level that exceeds the way that many people I've worked with in my career think, because her training just takes her to a whole other level. That's been incredibly helpful on this project. As for me, I studied architecture at the University of Virginia where I received my bachelor's and master's degrees. I've always had an interest in public buildings, museums, and libraries. Before I started my own firm, 10 years ago, I worked on projects at Monticello, Mount Vernon, Winterthur, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and a whole series of various library projects, including the Pratt Library in Baltimore. I love the idea of lifelong learning and I love the idea of preservation of both the buildings, which I always look at as the largest object in a museum or a library's collection. It's got to be the largest and probably the most expensive object. I love the idea of taking care of those things and of shoring up the world moving forward.
I assembled this team and NMWA was very open about who I brought in. I brought in a team of really excellent design professionals with whom I had a lot of experience. We kicked off the project on a Friday in January. That was our first meeting all together on the project in the building. We'd all had a building tour and we sat down and talked about what we were going to do. And that weekend, this freak snowstorm comes through and it comes up from the south, which is very unusual in Washington, D.C. It loads a lot of snow on the south facing roof of NMWA and then rips down about a hundred feet, linear feet, of the historic gutter above the sixth floor.
Photo by Marshall Craft Associates, provided courtesy of NMWA
Being NMWA, they rallied and on we went, so we're doing work. Obviously when you want to shore up a building, you start with the roof, that's the first line of defense and then the vertical walls, which includes the gutters. All of that envelope preservation is critical, as Gordon said earlier, to preserving not just the building, but also helping to conserve the art. And that's obviously very important. Those are being approached using normal building traditions, but also with CVM and the way that they think about envelope preservation and conservation, they use thermographic imaging during the study to demonstrate what the issues were and where we had particular problems with the envelope. And then Tracy ran a whole series of very complex calculations, looking at moisture migration through the envelope and how to mitigate humidity migration and balance those things. Because the goal is to protect the building, the art, and to manage energy consumption.
That's how we're approaching it with science and preservation conservation techniques, which I think is the right strategy for this building. And within the building we're really working to preserve and restore the beloved spaces like the Great Hall. It functions as a rental space. It's a gathering space. It's where you would probably say to your friends, "I'll meet you in the Great Hall", if you were meeting there. And it would be a lovely place to wait for your friends. You wouldn't mind being there at all. What's really interesting to me is even though the building was originally designed for the Masons and they didn't let women in most places, the Great Hall was a place where women were allowed. So it's functioning as it was originally intended, as a public space and a very beautiful venue so we're excited about that.
Balancing Current and Future Needs of the Museum
Gordon Umbarger: I mean the bottom line for us obviously is that we need a building that works for the organization and our mission and our visitors. And it'll serve all those things well for decades to come, we don't know what the future holds, but we need to be, especially after the past couple years, we've learned that, but we need to be as ready as we can. We really appreciate the approach that the design team has taken in terms of balancing listening to the organization and what it is that we're trying to achieve and then making that work within our building. The overall size of that building is not changing during this renovation. We have the building we have, and we're very proud of it and proud to have this opportunity to preserve it and keep it in its prominent place in Washington for many years.
One of the things that came to mind when Sandra was talking, we mentioned that historic gutter and cornice earlier, because I was just looking at the submittal that came back for the batten seam roofing that interfaces with that gutter. That's a common product in building these days, but the one that we need is not one that you can buy off the shelf. Because if you look at the original drawings for that cornice, the architect, Waddy Wood, was very careful to line the battens up with the stamped details in that metal cornice. So we want to make sure that those details are preserved when people see the building.
Sandra Vicchio: I was in an awful lot of meetings where we were looking at cost and the systems cost far exceeds the architecture cost. But in this case, that's the appropriate course of action. We're not changing a lot of the architecture in the building. Although we did, in order to meet the museum's mission and need for more space, we're creating a new gallery on the fourth floor of about 3,000 square feet. We were able to do that by condensing staff space. So along with this new gallery on the fourth floor, we've redesigned the library and we've created an education studio. This creates new learning center, which I think is really fabulous. It allows someone to come and see art, learn about art, and then even do some art, all on one floor. Which, if you think about engaging the public, whether they're young, middle aged or older, what an incredible experience that is.
One of the things that came to mind when Sandra was talking, we mentioned that historic gutter and cornice earlier, because I was just looking at the submittal that came back for the batten seam roofing that interfaces with that gutter. That's a common product in building these days, but the one that we need is not one that you can buy off the shelf. Because if you look at the original drawings for that cornice, the architect, Waddy Wood, was very careful to line the battens up with the stamped details in that metal cornice. So we want to make sure that those details are preserved when people see the building.
Sandra Vicchio: I was in an awful lot of meetings where we were looking at cost and the systems cost far exceeds the architecture cost. But in this case, that's the appropriate course of action. We're not changing a lot of the architecture in the building. Although we did, in order to meet the museum's mission and need for more space, we're creating a new gallery on the fourth floor of about 3,000 square feet. We were able to do that by condensing staff space. So along with this new gallery on the fourth floor, we've redesigned the library and we've created an education studio. This creates new learning center, which I think is really fabulous. It allows someone to come and see art, learn about art, and then even do some art, all on one floor. Which, if you think about engaging the public, whether they're young, middle aged or older, what an incredible experience that is.
A Rewarding Project
Gordon Umbarger: I just think it's a great project with a really worthy cause. The organization's mission is important and we carry it out in this unique building that's in such a prominent place, it’s on a very prominent corner, two blocks from the White House. It's been an honor to be part of the team charged with ensuring that that legacy and that mission is carried forward. And it's been really fulfilling to see the genuine excitement and engagement from consultants and contractors and other partners who are excited to partner with us for reasons beyond their bottom line. Everybody wants to win the contract, but folks are excited to work on behalf of this project and this organization and that's been really gratifying to see.
Photo by Kevin Allen, provided courtesy of NMWA
Continuing the Mission during Renovations
Photo by Kevin Allen, provided courtesy of NMWA
The majority of our membership base has never visited the museum. They're from all over the country, all over the world, and they follow us on Twitter and Instagram. And we’re constantly pushing out information about the programs that we're doing and we've got a whole series of them, art chats, studio tours with artists, all kinds of engaging programs that we're working on. And there are also a couple of public art projects down at the building itself, starting with a work by an artist who goes by the name MISS CHELOVE. It’s a scrim on the 13th street side of the building, extending all the way from about the top of the scaffold and then all the way the entire length of that facade.
Catherine Cooper: Thank you so much for telling us about this project and for joining us.
Gordon Umbarger: Thank you so much for this opportunity.
Sandra Vicchio: Thank you, Catherine.
Catherine Cooper: The next public art installation at the NMWA will be by Katharina Cibulka and will be unveiled this fall. She solicited input from the NMWA community to choose a feminist phrase; you can see what she made starting in October.
Photo by In the Headroom, provided courtesy of NMWA
Read other Preservation Technology Podcast articles or learn more about the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training.