Revisiting my mobile mosaic technique from last October's visit to the Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building, I just made this superwide composite of The Great Hall of The National Building Museum. The Great Hall is at the core of the museum, which is housed in the former United States Pension Bureau. Completed in 1887, the building contains "an innovative system of windows, ducts, and open archways ... designed to keep the building's Great Hall--approximately the size of a football field--well-ventilated and glimmering with natural light."

Building facts from the visitors' brochure:

• The interior of the National Building Museum is equally impressive. The Great Hall, 316 feet by 116 feet, is breathtaking. At its tallest point, it is approximately 15 stories high.
• Seventy-two Doric columns made of terra cotta surround the Great Hall on the ground floor. The second floor is encircled by 72 Ionic columns made from cast iron.
• The eight Corinthian columns centered in the Great Hall are among the tallest interior columns in the world. Made up of 70,000 bricks each and covered with painted plaster, the columns stand 75 feet high and are 8 feet in diameter. In 2000, the columns were remarbled to reflect more accurately the original pattern intended by General Meigs [the building's designer].
• Fifteen presidential inaugural balls, from Grover Cleveland's in 1885 to George W. Bush's in 2001, have been held in the Museum's Great Hall. The Presidential Seal located between two of the interior columns has been in place since 1901.

Sitting right by the fountain in the center of the hall, I feel free to think grand thoughts.

- mike lee - washington, d.c.