Kreeger Museum

Architect: Philip Johnson
Year: 1994
Style: Mid-Century Modern
City: Washington, DC

The Kreeger Museum occupies the Foxhall Road home Philip Johnson designed in 1963 for Carmen and David Lloyd Kreeger, pillars of Washington's arts community who assembled a collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings and sculpture between 1952 and 1988. Johnson, working with Richard Foster, planned the house from the start to eventually become a museum; it served as the Kreegers' home from 1967 to 1990 before opening to the public on June 1, 1994.

the building

Built to become a museum. The design brief called for a private residence that would one day hold the Kreegers' extensive art collection — an unusual case of a house planned from the outset for its museum afterlife. Johnson later said the finished building's "monumentality is as correct and current" as when he first conceived it.

the style

Johnson designed the house during his International Style period, and it is counted among Washington's premier modern mansions, set on five and a half wooded acres off Foxhall Road.

the architect

Philip Johnson, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect known for his work in the International Style, designed the Kreeger house together with Richard Foster in 1963.

more by Philip Johnson

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Fort Worth · 1961
One Atlantic Center Atlanta · 1987
PPG Place Pittsburgh · 1984
Sheldon Museum of Art Lincoln · 1963
TC Energy Center Houston · 1983
WRVA Building Richmond · 1968
101 California Street San Francisco · 1982
IDS Center Twin Cities · 1972

nearby

Glen Hurst 0.5 mi · Queen Anne
Engine Company No. 29 (Palisades Firehouse) 0.5 mi · Colonial Revival · 1925
Hillandale (Main Residence & Gatehouse) 0.7 mi · Renaissance Revival · 1922
Castle Gatehouse, Washington Aqueduct 0.8 mi · 1899
Bazelon-McGovern House 0.8 mi · Mid-Century Modern · 1957
Kameny, Franklin E., Residence 0.9 mi · Colonial Revival

All 315 buildings in Washington, DC