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National Academy of Sciences

Architects
Bertram Goodhue Harrison & Abramovitz
Style
Neoclassical
City
Washington, DC
Collection
the city beautiful
National Academy of Sciences
Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0
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The National Academy of Sciences Building at 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW, houses the executive offices of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine. Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue designed it in a hybrid he called an "Alexandrian" style, blending classical forms with looser, irregular massing. President Calvin Coolidge delivered the dedication address on April 28, 1924, calling it a "Temple of Science."

the building

An invented "Alexandrian" style. Goodhue didn't simply repeat classical formulas here. He folded irregular, sculptural massing into a Classicist frame, arriving at what he termed an "Alexandrian" style rather than a straightforward Neoclassical temple.

the style

Though cataloged as Neoclassical, the building is really Goodhue's own variant: classical elements combined with irregular forms he labeled "Alexandrian." The Constitution Avenue facade still reads as a stately institutional temple, fitting for an organization Coolidge dubbed a house of science.

More on Neoclassical

significance

The building is a DC Historic Landmark (#L_0280) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its 1924 dedication, with Coolidge's address, marked it as a national symbol for American science.

nearby

All 315 buildings in Washington, DC