This museum, and the sculpture garden adjacent to it, sit beside the National Mall and is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It was conceived as the United States' museum of contemporary and modern art with particular emphasis on art made during the last 50 years. When designing the building, the architect, Gordon Bunshaft, was told if it did not provide a striking contrast to everything else in the city, then it would be unfit for housing a modern art collection.
