THE SMITHSONIAN TORCH 
(Published monthly for the employees of the Smithsonian Institution) 
April 1956 
Number l4 
MHT ARCHITECTS NAMED 
The architectural firm of 
McKim, Mead & White, New York, 
will design the new Museum of 
History and Technology. 
When the contract was de- 
livered on March 20, Lawrence 
G. White and James K. 3 nith, 
partners of the firm, expressed 
to Dr. Carmichael their grati- 
fication on being selected for 
this assignment. Mr. White and 
Mr. Smith with two other archi- 
tects in the firm. Walker Cain 
and Edwin Olsen, devoted most 
of three days to an initial 
study of the Smithsonian’s plan- 
ning for the building. All ex- 
pressed great enthusiasm for the 
project. Mr. Cain said that an 
office competition between at 
least three teams of designers 
would inaugurate their attack 
on the problem. 
The architects are ex- 
pected to complete the working 
drawings and specifications for 
the foundation about a year 
from now, so construction should 
begin about that time. 
The firm of McKim, Mead & 
White was founded in 1879* It 
has designed numerous buildings 
for public, institutional, and 
educational use as well as com- 
mercial office buildings. 
One of the firm's founders, 
Charles F. McKim, was one of the 
architects who participated in 
the preparation of the McMillan 
Plan of 1901 for downtown Wash- 
ington and the Mall. Later the 
firm designed and prepared the 
architectural plans for Memorial 
Bridge . 
Mr. White is president of 
the National Academy of Design 
and until recently a member of 
the Smithsonian Art Commission. 
Mr. Smith is a member of the 
National Institute of Arts and 
Letters and president of the 
American Academy in Rome. (An 
article about the American 
Academy in Rome appears below . ) 
The Museum of History and 
Technology will be located on 
Constitution Avenue between 12th 
and l4th Streets, NW. The cost 
ceiling for the new structure is 
$36 million. It will have about 
1 -jj- million gross square feet and 
will be fully air conditioned. 
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME 
The American Academy in 
Rome consists of a school of 
fine arts and school of classi- 
cal studies. It is situated 
in Rome, Italy, and was founded 
under the leadership of Charles 
McKim in 
The aim of the Academy is 
to contribute toward American 
Arts and letters by giving se- 
lected artists and scholars an 
opportunity for study and travel 
in an atmosphere of art. There 
is no formal instruction but 
certain work and travel are pre- 
scribed. 
The school of fine arts in- 
cludes departments of architec- 
ture, painting, sculpture, land- 
scape architecture, and musical 
composition. Students are chosen 
