The Smithsonian Institution is taking a break from construction on its oldest building, which will be open to the public for America 250 starting Friday.
The Smithsonian Institution Building, commonly known as the Castle, has been out of commission since 2023 for renovations. That work will be paused until Sept. 7, giving visitors time to explore the iconic landmark as the nation marks its 250th anniversary of independence this summer.
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Because the Castle is a relic of U.S. history, Smithsonian leaders believed its brief reopening was important to educate Americans about the nation’s founding ideals. The museum complex is achieving this goal through its “American Aspirations” exhibit, which will feature some of the country’s most treasured objects, including Thomas Jefferson’s desk and an 1884 replica of the Statue of Liberty.
“If you think about what the Smithsonian’s doing this summer with the American Aspirations exhibit, it needed to be in a building like the Castle that’s centrally located and important to all of the institution rather than maybe one of our museums,” Carly Bond, a Smithsonian architecture and preservation expert, told the Washington Examiner.
The Smithsonian wanted the exhibit to show that “all of America fits in at the Castle,” she said.
Weeks after the exhibit’s end date, the Castle will close again for a few more years while renovators add the finishing touches. Bond, who works in the Smithsonian’s Office of Planning, Design, and Construction, explained the yearslong process before the building is fully refurbished.
Architectural makeover
The newly completed first phase of construction was intended to get the Castle ready for America 250, which the Smithsonian planned to take part in back in 2021.
Much of the work so far has been done on the Castle’s interior. This included removing the plaster ceiling, which had sagged under its own weight for the past 170 years. When visitors walk into the “Great Hall,” a cathedral-like gathering space within the Castle, they will see brick instead of plaster.
The underlying brick structure is significant because it helped prevent the building from being destroyed by a fire in 1865. Ever since then, fireproofing has been a key priority for preserving the building’s medieval-inspired architecture.
Besides the interior, the next phase of the project will focus on the Castle’s exterior, where the stone and windows need to be replaced.
It will take another four to five years before the nearly $530 million project is complete.
Bond said this is the “biggest historic preservation or restoration project the Smithsonian will ever do” — and for good reason.
Over 60% of the improved Castle will be open to the public. For context, less than 20% of the interior was open to the public before the Castle closed in 2023. As a result, visitors will be able to walk upstairs and enter the basement, areas that were previously inaccessible.
The changes will also reflect a more historical aesthetic, closer to the building’s mid-19th-century construction.
“When we resume construction and finish the project, the interior of the castle and the [paint] finishes are all going to be restored to how they looked in the early 1900s, so the colors will be very different from how the public has experienced the building over the last several decades,” Bond said.
“We’re undoing some changes that were made in the 1970s to make sure that we can return these grand historic interiors back to their original sizes, which is really the most exciting thing about it,” she added.
‘Seismic moat’
Another feature the renovated Castle will have is one you can’t see, but, nonetheless, plays a crucial role in reinforcing the architecture.
Smithsonian officials call this upgrade a “seismic moat,” which essentially protects the 170-year-old building from earthquakes by placing a base isolator between the structural foundation and the ground. This means the ground would move in an earthquake while the Castle remains stable.
Base isolation technology is extremely common on the West Coast, where seismic risks are high. Though Washington, D.C., is considered a low-seismic zone, tremors occasionally occur there.
Such was the case in 2011 when a 5.8-magnitude earthquake centered in Mineral, Virginia, struck the nation’s capital. The Castle sustained the brunt of the damage. After the seismic activity, it was left with cracked beams, shattered windows, and destabilized roof turrets.
The rare East Coast earthquake prompted the Smithsonian to consider reinforcing the sandstone building with an invisible seismic moat. It will be covered with concrete or plantings, so no one will know it’s actually there.
Despite what the name suggests, this moat will not be filled with water.
Because the Castle is long and thin, with tall, skinny towers, the seismic moat is a much-needed upgrade that will lessen the impact of future earthquakes.
“For a building like the castle that has such unusual geometry,” Bond said, “this really is the best way to make sure that it would never be damaged in another seismic event.”
Arts and Industries Building and carousel
The Castle is not the only Smithsonian attraction that’s reopening this summer.
The Arts and Industries Building, the museum complex’s second-oldest building, located next to the Castle, will be open from June 16 to Sept. 7 and host a semiquincentennial-themed exhibit, called “Voices and Votes: Exploring Democracy Across America.”
The last exhibit in the Arts and Industries Building was made for the 1976 bicentennial. After that, the building was used by staff until 2011. It was already closed for extensive repairs that year when the Mineral earthquake hit the D.C. area. Since then, the building has been temporarily used for special events and programming.
The building’s exterior was rehabilitated sometime after the earthquake. There is no major construction going on there at the moment.
In April, the Smithsonian reopened the carousel on the National Mall for the first time since 2023 after undergoing restoration. The work resulted in “refurbished hand‑carved horses, modernized safety and mechanical systems and newly designed ADA‑accessible chariots, as well as a redesigned platform, ticket booth and enhanced pathways,” according to the Smithsonian’s website.
The amusement park ride has remained a favorite among children and adults alike for decades. Originally located in Baltimore, the carousel was desegregated on Aug. 28, 1963 — the same day that civil rights icon the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led the March on Washington. The carousel was relocated in 1981 to the National Mall, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
White House oversight of Smithsonian programming
While preparing for America 250, the Smithsonian has been operating under the critical purview of the White House.
The Trump administration launched a review of the museum network’s semiquincentennial programming to ensure it was aligned with the administration’s patriotic view of America. In a letter sent to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch last year, White House officials expressed concern about “divisive or partisan narratives” that may have seeped into the independent research institute’s exhibits.
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President Donald Trump himself has weighed in on the Smithsonian’s depiction of U.S. history in the past year, criticizing the institution’s apparent bent toward progressive politics.
The Washington Examiner contacted the Smithsonian and the White House for comment on their cooperation ahead of America 250. The Smithsonian’s exhibits scheduled for its two oldest buildings presumably mean the White House is satisfied with the programming.
