The new Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyar

The new Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, with its elegant glass canopy designed by world renowned architect Norman Foster of Foster and Partners in London, opened to the public this week 23 November, 2007 at the historic Patent Office Building that houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Foster, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize (1999), worked with the Smithsonian to create an innovative enclosure for the 28,000-square-foot (2,601-sq-meter) space at the center of the building that is sensitive to the historic structure; the new "floating" roof does not rest on the original building which was built in phases between 1836 and 1868. AFP PHOTO / TIM SLOAN (Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP via Getty Images)