National Building Museum
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Pension Building
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Pension Building, now the National Building Museum
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| Location | Washington, D.C. |
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| Coordinates | 38°53′51″N 77°1′5″W / 38.89750°N 77.01806°WCoordinates: 38°53′51″N 77°1′5″W / 38.89750°N 77.01806°W |
| Built | 1887 |
| Architect | Montgomery C. Meigs |
| Architectural style | Renaissance Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 69000312 |
| Added to NRHP | March 24, 1969 |
The National Building Museum, historically known as the Pension Building, in Washington, D.C., United States, is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit institution; it is adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and the Judiciary Square Metro station.
The museum hosts various temporary exhibits in galleries around the spacious Great Hall.
The National Building Museum is housed in the former Pension Bureau building, a brick structure completed in 1887 and designed by Montgomery C. Meigs, the U.S. Army quartermaster general. It is notable for several architectural features, including the spectacular interior columns and a frieze, sculpted by Caspar Buberl, stretching around the exterior of the building and depicting Civil War soldiers in scenes somewhat reminiscent of those on Trajan's Column as well as the Horsemen Frieze of the Parthenon. The vast interior, measuring 316 × 116 feet (96 × 35 m), has been used to hold inauguration balls; a Presidential Seal is set into the floor near the south entrance.
After the Civil War, the United States Congress passed legislation that greatly extended the scope of pension coverage for veterans and their survivors and dependents, notably their widows and orphans. The number of staff needed to implement and administer the new benefits system ballooned to over 1,500, and quickly required a new building from which to run it all. Meigs was chosen to design and construct the new building. He departed from the established Greco-Roman models that had been the basis of government buildings in Washington, D.C., until then and which continued after the Pension Building's completion. Meigs based his design on Italian Renaissance precedents, notably Rome's Palazzo Farnese and the Palazzo della Cancelleria.
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