The American Institute of Pharmacy Building, also known as the Americal Pharmaceutical Association Building and the American Pharmacists Association Building is a late

Beaux Arts style Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...

building in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, the headquarters of the

American Pharmacists Association The American Pharmacists Association (APhA, previously known as the American Pharmaceutical Association), founded in 1852, is the first-established professional society of pharmacists in the United States. The association consists of more th ...

. The building, prominently located on

Constitution Avenue Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street in the northwest and northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and its western section was greatly lengthened and widened bet ...

, is on the only privately held lot in the area, surrounded by protected Federal lands. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1977.

History

The American Institute of Pharmacy Building was designed by architect

John Russell Pope John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an American architect whose firm is widely known for designing major public buildings, including the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 1935), the Jeff ...

and completed in 1933. It is a one-story building with a full basement partially above grade. Structure is steel and brick with reinforced concrete floor and roof. The building is faced with Vermont marble and faces a wide terrace that overlooks the stepped slope leading down to the Lincoln Memorial. The building is arranged with a strongly centralized mass with subordinate wings to either side. A single monumental door flanked by pilasters and large bronze lamps is the sole punctuation of the facade.

Allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

relief sculpture by

Ulysses Ricci Ulysses Anthony Ricci (1888–1960) was an American sculptor known primarily for his architectural sculpture. Born in New York City, Ricci was an apprentice at the Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Works in New Jersey from 1902 to 1906. He studied at ...

embellishes the entrance surround. The building was conceived by Pope to be complementary to the Lincoln Memorial. Because of the prominence of the site and its relationship to the Lincoln Memorial the American Institute of Pharmacy was required to make extensive land acquisitions and exchanges with the government to create suitable buffers and to allow for the widening of 23rd Street as it approaches the Memorial. White marble was specifically stipulated as the exterior cladding material. The interior is arranged around a central rotunda, accompanied by a small museum and library, now board room and reception space. Offices are located to the rear, while the basement was planned as laboratory, service and storage space. The rotunda is capped by a low dome resting on

pendentive In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...

s and lighted by an oculus. The flanking museum and library are lighted by skylights. A three-story addition was built in 1959-1961, designed by Eggers and Higgins and subordinated to the design of the main building. Further additions took place in 2007-2009.

References

External links

Renovating And Expanding Pharmacy's Home On The Mall
at the American Pharmacists Association {{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Beaux-Arts architecture in Washington, D.C. Buildings and structures completed in 1932 John Russell Pope buildings Neoclassical architecture in Washington, D.C.