This structure serves as both a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust as well as a museum, with exhibits pertinent to its theme. It is just south of the Mall on a site approved by Congress in 1980. Unlike its elegant neighbors, this building is less rational, less elegant--as befits its purpose. |
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View of the 14th Street facade and the side(If anyone has a view of the 14th street front of the musuem and would like to contribute it to this site, I would like very much to include it on this page--with appropriate credit to the contributor.) |
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The rear facade overlooking the Tidal Basin See additional views of Loss and Regeneration by Joel Shapiro. |
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Pamela Scott explains that "in the interior central space, the rectangular, multi-story, skylit Hall of Witness, the exterior's harmony and repose begin to disintegrate. Jarring asymmetries, cracks in walls, an apparent fissure in the floor are all meant to invoke a sense of disquiet and unease as a prelude to the horrors displayed and recounted in adjacent exhibition spaces" (238-9). |
Views of the interior: Hall of Witness |
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The six-sided Hall of RemembranceEach side is dedicated to a million victims of the Holocaust. An ambulatory circles around four sides and the symbolic space is illuminated by an hexagonal skylight. |
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