Washington - Since its rededication in the 1980s, the National Building Museum has become one of Washington's newest, yet oldest, gems - a 19th century brick building inspired by Michelangelo design and now dedicated to architectural ideas. In fact, when the leaders of 20 world leading economies meet there Saturday for the hastily assembled economic crisis summit, there may be an unseen guest in the room which also had its origins in the 1980s: financial greed.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy had originally pushed US President George W Bush to hold the summit in New York, because that is where the world finance system began unraveling from increasingly high risk investments generated by Wall Street wizardry.
"Insofar as this crisis began in New York, then the global solution must be found in New York," Sarkozy told Bush less than a month ago.
But Bush chose the grandeur of the National Building Museum - maybe when the leaders of Europe, India, China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and other G20 members start grappling with the sobering spectre of recession, they will likely need all the inspiration they can get.
Few other spaces in Washington DC can offer such a muse.
With majestic columns and large soaring arcades, the design was inspired by two 16th-century Roman palaces which bear Michelangelo's imprint: the High-Renaissance Palazzo Farnese that now houses the French embassy in Rome and the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
The building was constructed in the 1880s just a short walk from Washington's mall to house pension affairs and provide grand surroundings for political and social happenings, such as inaugural balls.
It will likely be a venue for festivities when president-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated on January 20.
After serving a variety of purposes over nearly a century, the brick building was on the verge of demolition in the 1960s when one of America's first leading female architects, Chloethiel Woodard Smith, came up with a plan to rescue it and turn it into a museum. Congress agreed and the rest is history.
Most recently, it was in the news when Senator Hillary Clinton gave her speech to concede the Democratic presidential nomination to Obama.
The museum also hosts a continuing series of events on such topics as green architecture. It is home to a variety of exhibits about created space and its relation to human activity, including one on play blocks and other toys which have inspired children through the ages.
