Smithsonian Museums Reopen Amid Renewal

After 6 1/2 years of hibernation, the ornate marble and sandstone hulk known as the Old Patent Office Building reopened. Inside the refurbished fortress are the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Both Smithsonian museums have been transformed. But in the years that the galleries have been dark, the scruffy streets and empty storefronts that surrounded Washington’s third-oldest federal building at 8th and F streets NW have evolved into one of the city’s trendiest neighborhoods.