Battles Ahead: Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden Redesign

The conceptual design for a new Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden on the National Mall, designed by photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto, was by recently approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), following an approval from the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) in May. This comes amid concerns from The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) that the current design — created by landscape architect Lester Collins in 1981 that significantly modified the original design by architect Gordon Bunshaft in 197 — is a masterwork of Modernist landscape architecture and should be preserved. The organization included the garden, which displays some 60 sculptures, in their “landslide” list, which aims to raise awareness about threatened culturally-significant landscapes.