National Building Museum

At the National Building Museum in Washington, a new exhibition attempts to show just how much the advent of the automobile and pleasure travel have transformed our surroundings during the 20th century -- for better or worse."

Illustrator and storyteller David Macaulay has been described as a visual archaeologist, an artist who "excavates" historic buildings by drawing them in various stages of construction or deconstruction, rather than digging into the earth. Focusing on everything from the spaghetti-like tangle of pipes and cables under cities to the structural systems of cathedrals and pyramids, his books are valuable resources that show all that goes into shaping the built environment. Next month, Macaulay's work will be the subject of an exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington.

Plywood pliers, a glass hammer and a paper drill press are all In "Tools as Art IV" at the National Building Museum. It's a show of tools in art, from the collection of hardware magnate John Hechinger Sr.Previous shows in the series have featured serious art - by such figures as photographer Berenice Abbott and pop artist Claes Oldenburg - but they've also been a lot of fun.The National Building Museum is at 401 F St. N.W., Washington. It is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

Spring may have officially started Wednesday, but as anyone knows, spring really begins with the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington. This year's festival, which kicks off Saturday and runs through April 15, features daily cultural performances, arts and crafts demonstrations, sporting events and various other events throughout the district. The festival is a commemoration of the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the people of Tokyo to the people of Washington in 1912.

Cherry Blossom Festival While tomorrow marks the first official day of spring, Saturday marks the true start of the season, as the Cherry Blossom Festival begins in Washington. The annual festival, which runs Saturday through April 9, commemorates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the people of Tokyo to the people of Washington in 1912. On opening day, visitors can take part in the National Cherry Blossom Festival Family Day and Opening Ceremony at the National Building Museum. Family day will feature various hands-on activities, demonstrations, performances and displays inside the museum's Great Hall.

"ALL THE good ideas I'd ever had came to me when I was milking a cow," the American painter Grant Wood once remarked.Some of his scenes are on view at Washington's National Building Museum, which has a fascinating exhibit celebrating disappearing farm life.Called "Barn Again!," the exhibit explores the barn as an adaptable agricultural structure, as a symbol of community and country life and as a monument in the American landscape.A big barn has been erected in the courtyard of the museum.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards will receive one of the highest awards bestowed for American architecture, a national honor award from the American Institute of Architects.The 2-year-old ballpark at 333 Camden St. is one of 17 works of architecture singled out for recognition at the AIA's 1994 "Accent BTC on Architecture" awards gala tonight at the National Building Museum in Washington."Every aspect of the design of Camden Yards, from the smallest graphic touches to the largest structural elements, is lively and good natured, making going to a baseball game in Baltimore a wonderful experience," said the nine-member AIA jury.

Architect and educator Samuel Mockbee, who promotes "democracy" in architecture by working with college students to design and build homes for low-income residents in rural Alabama, will discuss his work this week during an appearance at the National Building Museum in Washington. Mockbee has been selected as the first recipient of the museum's Apgar Award for Excellence, given in recognition of his efforts to promote the practice of architecture as a social good. Mockbee has earned national attention as the co-creator and director of the Rural Studio in Hale County, Ala., where he gives hands-on training to architecture students at Auburn University.

Looking for a nifty knickknack? A unique ceramic piece? Some handmade jewelry? You'll find them, and much more, at the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington today through Sunday. The show, in its 20th year, brings together 120 craft artists from all across the country, selected by jury from nearly 1,400 applicants. On exhibit will be furniture, decorative-fiber works, basketry, ceramics, glass pieces, jewelry, paper goods, wood works, metal pieces, leather goods, wearable art and mixed-media works.

Women at work A new museum opening this month in Dallas chronicles the American woman and her evolution from second-class citizen to societal force. The Women's Museum: An Institute for the Future, in association with the Smithsonian Institution, celebrates the strides women have made by detailing their illustrious history since the country's founding. The museum's signature icon is an Electronic Quilt (right), a 30-foot-tall matrix of electronic "patches" of still and moving images, quotes and symbolic colors.

A triangular parcel near Baltimore's Canton waterfront will be the setting for one of the first high-profile building projects to get under way locally this year - an addition to the Can Company shopping and office center. Ziger/Snead Architects of Baltimore has designed a 9,500-square-foot retail center that will rise in the 2400 block of Boston St. It will occupy the last vacant development site on the old American Can Co. property, a former cannery that Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse has converted to 200,000 square feet of office and retail space.

Looking for a nifty knickknack? A unique ceramic piece? Some handmade jewelry? You'll find them, and much more, at the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington today through Sunday. The show, in its 20th year, brings together 120 craft artists from all across the country, selected by jury from nearly 1,400 applicants. On exhibit will be furniture, decorative-fiber works, basketry, ceramics, glass pieces, jewelry, paper goods, wood works, metal pieces, leather goods, wearable art and mixed-media works.

Washington's National Building Museum memorializes New York's twin towers through the photographs of Camilo Jose Vergara, who spent more than 30 years shooting the buildings from nearly every conceivable angle, height, distance, time of day and weather condition. Called Twin Towers Remembered, the exhibit features 60 pictures that show the buildings' character. "As we worked with these images, we at the museum came to grasp more fully the Twin Towers' physical size, their symbolic resonance, and ultimately, the magnitude of their loss," writes Susan Henshaw Jones, National Building Museum president, in an introduction to the exhibit.

Since the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center, the future of the American skyscraper has come into question as never before. Some urban experts warn that mega-towers may be dead as a building form, in the United States at least, because they're targets for terrorists. Others say 100-story buildings will be rare, as they always have been, but structures of 50 stories or so will continue to rise when market conditions warrant. On Friday at 6 p.m., noted architects and engineers will gather at the National Building Museum in Washington to discuss the role of the skyscraper in the urban landscape and its future as a building type, in light of Sept.

From the ancient temples of Greece to the undulating curves of the Guggenheim Bilbao, architecture is increasingly inspiring travelers on cultural vacations. Once banished to the back of the guidebooks, trophy buildings with great bone structure and the architects who designed them have become glittering stars in the world of pop culture. Vacationers are putting great buildings high on the must-see list. They are flocking to destination museums -- such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain; the Tate Modern in London; and the Getty in Los Angeles -- as much for the buildings themselves as for what's in them.

With all the hoopla surrounding the inauguration of George W. Bush next weekend, visitors to Washington may overlook one of the capital's lesser-known architectural gems -- the National Building Museum. In a city of monolithic white stone and marble, the building museum sits on its own, a vision in red brick -- 15 million of them -- like a child's outsize creation in Legos. Located at Fifth and F streets N.W., in Judiciary Square, the museum is a bit of an anomaly. Instead of boasting patriotic displays of government or American history, it is dedicated to the very tangible craft of building, and supported with both public and private funds.