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Martin Puryear | Stephen Robin | Keith Sonnier | Oscar Straus | Woodrow Wilson| Berlin Wall
Architect James Ingo Freed, of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, designed the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The structure's brilliant exterior design with its traditional Indiana limestone façade, blends in perfectly with the surrounding historic buildings, while its dramatic and contemporary interior proclaims and celebrates the 21st century.
The building features a magnificent interior framework of stone, steel and glass crowned by a soaring, 10-story rotunda and a majestic, cone-shaped skylight comprised of an acre of glass.
Distinctive works of art grace the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center at strategic points.
Three exquisite new works of art were created for the building through the U.S. General Services Administration's Art-in-Architecture Program. The GSA program commissions fine art for Federal buildings nationwide that "reflects our country's cherished and strongly held belief in the worth of the individual and the value of creative expression." Out of 250 nominations, the GSA commissioned works from Martin Puryear, Stephen Robin and Keith Sonnier. Their works are on display in the building's most dramatic spaces -- the Atrium and the Woodrow Wilson Plaza.
A fourth work of art, the Oscar S. Straus Memorial Fountain, with sculpture by Adolph Alexander Weinman, was installed on the site in 1947. The memorial has been restored and returned to its original location at the 14th Street entrance of the Ronald Reagan Building.
Martin Puryear – Bearing Witness
Artist Martin Puryear intended that this 40 foot hammer-formed bronze work be viewed as a handcrafted sculpture. He chose to fabricate, rather than cast, the piece so that he could control the shape and details of the work, as is done in woodworking.
The sculpture, Bearing Witness, is located on the Woodrow Wilson Plaza, just west of the plaza's 13th Street axis. The verticality of the piece draws the viewer from Pennsylvania Avenue through a sequence of spaces into the plaza. The arches in both the new and older surrounding buildings are echoed visually in the work's curved top.
Puryear is recognized as one of the most prominent American sculptors working today. His works are on exhibit at such prestigious institutions as the National Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Stephen Robin – Federal Triangle Flowers
Artist Stephen Robin created a sculptural work, known as Federal Triangle Flowers, for the Woodrow Wilson Plaza, located between the historic Ariel Rios Building and the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The Federal Triangle Flowers are comprised of two parts – a single stem rose and a lily.
The cast-aluminum flowers are installed on limestone pedestals on either side of a circular opening in the plaza. They serve as a transition between the older buildings of the Federal Triangle and the contemporary Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The formal symmetry of the two flowers corresponds with the symmetry of the two reclining figures that are part of the historic Oscar S. Straus Memorial Fountain at the 14th Street entrance to the building. Each flower is approximately 10 feet high, 14 feet long, and 7 feet wide.
The artist, a native of Washington, DC, is nationally known for his work in architectural embellishment and representational sculpture.
Keith Sonnier – Route Zenith
Artist Keith Sonnier created the exquisite neon and glass sculpture, known as Route Zenith, for the Atrium in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The sculpture is the largest neon work in North America.
Sonnier created Route Zenith in close collaboration with the building's architect James Ingo Freed. Monumental in scale, the work is integrated into the Atrium's two metal curvilinear curtain walls. Approximately 30 feet wide by 49 feet high, the work consists of glass plates and neon tubes in primary colors of red, blue, and yellow. Venetian tinted glass was used for the neon tubes because it creates a more saturated and superior form of colored light. The sculpture plays on the subtle interchange of light reflected in the glass-covered atrium, shifting throughout the day and evening with variations in light conditions and the movement of people.
A nationally recognized artist, Sonnier's work has been exhibited locally at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Gallery of Art and Washington Project for the Arts.
Oscar Straus Memorial Fountain
The Oscar Straus Memorial Fountain, dedicated in 1947 as a tribute to the diplomat and Secretary of Commerce and Labor, has been restored and returned to its original location.
The memorial is comprised of a low, three-tiered fountain with two bronze sculptured groups set on granite pedestals on either side. A bronze plaque summarizes the highlights of Mr. Straus's career. The fountain is flanked on the left (as one faces the Ronald Reagan Building) by a reclining female figure dressed in classical robes with her hands clasped in prayer. To the right of the fountain is a partially draped male figure. The child next to him holds a purse, key, and hammer, symbolizing capital and labor. The two figures represent the opportunity and religious freedom that Oscar Straus found in the United States and commemorate what he gave back in service to his adopted country.
Bas Relief of our 28th President Woodrow Wilson
A Congressionally-authorized memorial bas relief of former President Woodrow Wilson, by artist Leonard Baskin, overlooks the Woodrow Wilson Plaza, in the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Berlin Wall
In honor of former President Ronald Reagan and in recognition of his leadership, which contributed to German reunification, the citizens of Berlin and the employees of Daimler-Benz donated a large section of the Berlin Wall for permanent display in the Ronald Reagan Building. The Wall segment, which is over nine feet high, three feet wide and weighs almost three tons, is from an inner-city section of the Berlin Wall near the Brandenburg Gate, where on June 12, 1987, President Reagan issued his challenge: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" On November 9, 1989, the wall that divided the city of Berlin for 28 years and had come to symbolize the East-West division and conflict, crumbled.
