National Building Museum

The National Building Museum is a museum of architecture, design, engineering, construction and urban planning in Washington, D.C., created as a private nonprofit institution by an act of Congress in 1980. It occupies the former Pension Building at 401 F Street NW, designed by Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and built between 1882 and 1887 to house the U.S. Pension Bureau, an important early large-scale example of Renaissance Revival architecture that was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The buildings Great Hall, lined with colossal 75-foot Corinthian columns and a 1,200-foot terra cotta frieze, has hosted several presidential inaugural balls.