Seeing What's Around You

I've mentioned before that my office is pretty close to the US Capitol and the National Mall. Given that, when I have to go to meetings or events in another of our office bldgs, I often find myself walking down Constitution Avenue. A couple of weeks ago, I needed to do just that and the reason why required me to have a camera with me.

For those of you not familiar with the area, Constitution Ave forms one of the boundaries of the National Mall. If you've ever watched an inaugural parade or saw part of former Pres. Ford's or former Pres. Reagan's funerals on TV, you've seen it....When on Constitution Ave, most ppl are pretty focused on the Mall-side of the street. Afterall, the street is lined on that side by the various museums or memorials & that's what people have come to see. The other side of the street is pretty much just government office bldgs, so there's nothing interesting to see over there, right?

In a word: wrong!!

Most of those government office bldgs were built during the Depression. As such, there was a big push to find ways to get ppl working. The overwhelming majority of those government bldgs had money set aside in the original construction budget for artwork as a way to generate jobs for the thousands of artists/artisans/craftspeople who desperately needed to find work. As a result, the details of these bldgs are absolutely phenomenal!! To wit:

This decorative urn outside one bldg:
Or this metalwork on a gate at the same bldg:

These 2 statues flank the steps in front of the National Archives:


and check out this bas-relief at the roof line of the Archives:

At another building, this metalwork caught my eye:
I love the juxtaposition of the 3 different types/eras of ships! Here's a close-up of the most modern one:
I L-O-V-E the detailing on this statue: (I would have taken more pics of it, but the guard was a little nervous that I was taking pics of a federal bldg, so I moved on.)

This one sits in front of one of the courthouses in the same general vicinity. When the Scooter Libbey trial was going on, you could sometimes see it in the stand-up shots as reporters gave updates:
I would venture to guess that everyday, hundreds (if not more) people pass these gems (and many others that I didn't have time to get to) and never even see that they exist.