Renwick Gallery (former Corcoran Gallery building)

Designed by architect James Renwick Jr. and completed in 1861, the building was constructed as the Corcoran Gallery of Art and is among the nation's earliest purpose-built art museums. Its compact urban site and ornate façade reflect mid-19th-century museum architecture in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian Institution acquired the building in 1965 and it now operates as the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, focused on contemporary craft and decorative arts.