Sugimoto's Zen Rewrite Lifts Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden Out of Hiding

The Hirshhorn's sculpture garden now displays 60 sculptures, up from 35, after an eight-year-on, eight-year-off collaboration between Japanese architect and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, his New Material Research Laboratory, and New York-based YUN Architecture.

The redesign of the 1.3-acre sunken garden at the Washington, D.C. museum — one of 11 Smithsonian institutions on the National Mall — follows Sugimoto's 2018 refresh of the museum's lobby. That was a light touch. This is not.

Acting museum director Aaron Seeto stresses the scope: 'It is not just a renovation of an existing plan.' A complete rethink, in his words.

Why did the garden need opening up?

Gordon Bunshaft's original design sunk the garden up to 14 feet below the Mall's surface — a typically Bunshaftian balancing act, given the museum's circular volume begins 14 feet above street level. For decades, the space had just two entrances. A third, an original passageway under Jefferson Drive, had been closed since 1981.

Sugimoto restored the shuttered passage and widened the northern entrance. The move is transformational, according to Seeto: 'It means that our front door is the National Mall.'

The scheme centers on two reflecting pools — roughly in line with Bunshaft's own wishes for a larger pool — plus a central performance platform inspired by Noh theatre in Tokyo. Bunshaft, Sugimoto notes, also drew on zen gardens.

'Having "void space" amid greenery is the essential precondition for a proper Zen garden,' Sugimoto said in a design statement. 'Placing a lifeless, empty space amid vigorously flourishing vegetation has the paradoxical effect of presenting the viewer with a powerful visualization of the concept of life.'

One catch: Bunshaft's garden was short on greenery. 'While the original Bunshaft-designed garden succeeded in establishing this void space, I believe it was missing the surrounding green plantings,' Sugimoto said.

Who objected, and why?

The Smithsonian spotted the bareness decades ago. A 1981 partial redesign by Lester Collins greened the scheme. Preservationists have objected to Sugimoto's redesign largely for erasing those Collins elements; the Cultural Landscape Foundation classified the garden as 'threatened.' Sugimoto's stacked stone walls also drew criticism for abandoning a central concrete element that cohered with the museum's form.

The walls carry their own weight, literally. They contain 950 tons of stone from Gloucester, Massachusetts, hand-stacked by Japanese stonemasons. The result reads as both more comfortable and more monumental — a conversation pit rather than a secret garden.

Working with Rhodeside & Harwell landscape architects, the team retained the historic elms at the perimeter and added 57 new trees, from American elms to Katsura cherry trees, plus over 40,000 plants. Sugimoto aimed at 'the perfect forest,' with distinct character in each spot. Washington's acutely miserable summers also get more seating and shade.

'We want people to linger longer and to really use the space for contemplation of our extraordinary collection,' Seeto said.

What's now on display?

Nineteen of the 60 works have never been shown at the museum. The hang carries an argument. 'There is a little bit of an art historical narrative,' Seeto explains. 'Our collection of Rodins have been presented as a kind of foundation to think through modern sculpture. Then it moves through history.'

Joseph Hirshhorn had personal relationships with Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, and the museum has created a gallery specifically for those two artists.

Eleven new works join the garden, from Woody De Othello to Chatchai Puipia. Four are commissions: pieces by Izumi Kato and KAWS, plus Sugimoto's own Passage of Reflectance, a stainless steel work under the bridge between museum and garden. Yoko Ono's Wish Tree for Washington, built around a live dogwood tree, has also returned.

Danish sculptors Elmgreen and Dragset contribute Eight, a stainless steel work evoking a backyard swimming pool turned on its side. The timing, in a city recently acquainted with infamous pools, was not lost on anyone.

'We have been asked if there's a relation to other pools that have been tremendously infamous in Washington recently,' Ingar Dragset jokes. 'To that we have to say we planned this for four years. More than us commenting on reality, reality sometimes starts to comment on our pieces.'

With the garden now facing the Mall head-on and its collection nearly doubled, the Hirshhorn has converted its most concealed asset into its most public one.