Smithsonian American Art Museum Landmark located in Washington, D.C.'s downtown cultural district. It is considered an example of Greek Revival architecture in the United States. It was designed by architects Robert Mills, and Thomas U. Walter. During the 1990s, the Smithsonian Institution worked on restoring the building. The Smithsonian completed another renovation of the building in July 1, 2006. The 2000-2006 renovation restored many of the building’s exceptional architectural features: restoring the porticos modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, a curving double staircase, colonnades, vaulted galleries, large windows, and skylights as long as a city block. During the renovation, the Lunder Conservation Center, the
The Smithsonian Institution (novel) to life—not historical figures—and not inside the Smithsonian, as they do in Vidal's novel. The Smithsonian Institution (novel) Gore Vidal's 1998 novel The Smithsonian Institution is a fictional account of the adventures of "T." as he helps a group of scientists in the basement of the Smithsonian create the neutron bomb, and encounters historical figures such as President Abraham Lincoln, Charles Lindbergh, Eleanor Roosevelt and Mrs. Grover Cleveland. Vidal supposedly claimed that this was the inspiration for the 2006 film "Night at the Museum". The film was in fact based on the 1993 children's book "The Night at the Museum".