Exhibition Reviews

Ford Orientation Center and Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center. Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, Mount Vernon, Va. http://www.mountvernon.org/.       Permanent exhibition, opened Oct. 27, 2006. 66,700 sq. ft. James C. Rees, executive director; GWWO, Inc., architects; Christopher Chadbourne & Associates, Museum Design Associates, and Dennis Earl Moore Productions, exhibition design; Art Guild, Inc., exhibit fabrication; Quenroe Associates, Reynolds Museum galleries; mfm Design, Ford Orientation Center exhibits.
Measured by the yardstick of attendance, George Washington is first in the hearts of his countrymen. Every year more than a million visitors make the pilgrimage to his Mount Vernon estate, making it the most popular house museum in the United States. It will surprise few readers of this journal, however, that, according to the Mount Vernon staff, most visitors arrive with little understanding of who Washington was or what he accomplished. The Washington of popular imagination is the face on the dollar bill, a figure as remote as he is familiar. And the history taught in America's classrooms has done little to make perhaps our nation's greatest military hero and president come alive for students.	1
The recently opened additions at Mount Vernon, built at a cost of more than $60 million, attempt to remedy that fact. They do so with mixed results. Both the new Ford Orientation Center and the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center strive to turn the marble icon Washington became even in his own lifetime into a historical figure of flesh and blood, a man whose character and accomplishments are accessible to the flood of visitors that Mount Vernon attracts. In the words of the project's marketing tagline, visitors are invited to "discover the real George Washington." Given Washington's famously elusive personality, that may be an impossible task. But it is an important undertaking, and in its pursuit the new additions at Mount Vernon achieve some notable success.	2
The new additions are a stunning accomplishment, especially in terms of the architectural program and the organization of the visit. They should extend the length of the average visit and enrich the visitor experience. The layout of the buildings will also distribute visitors around the estate grounds, helping minimize congestion during peak visitation periods. Most importantly, though, the new additions meet an inherent challenge faced by many house museums: telling a story of epic public accomplishment in a private place, even one as hallowed as Mount Vernon.	3
Life-size bronze sculptures of George Washington, Martha Washington, and her two grandchildren, Nelly and Washy, welcome visitors to Mount Vernon's Ford Orientation Center, and present George Washington as a private man, rather than a military hero. Courtesy Mount Vernon Ladies' Association/Bob Creamer.
The design of the new buildings, by GWWO, Inc. of Baltimore, has been justly praised as "contextually harmonious, visually rich architecture" (Roger K. Lewis, "At Mount Vernon, New Centers Offer Lessons in Harmony," Washington Post, Oct. 28, 2006, p. F8). Nearly two-thirds of the 66,700 square-foot complex is underground, minimizing the impact to the historic estate and preserving a four-acre pasture above the new complex. The architectural plan is nicely intuitive, permitting visitors to find their way easily through the estate. It also makes it possible, however, to visit Mount Vernon and experience the new orientation center and museum without ever seeing the mansion.	. . .