kogod courtyard at the smithsonian

[image: dcist.com]

The Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, designed by London-based Foster + Partners, was recently featured in the June 2008 issue of Achitectural Record. In an article by Martin Filler entitled "New Museums: The good, the bad, and the horribly misguided" he describes the glass-roofed courtyard as "one of the most pointless fads in recent museum history" where the "growing compulsion to glaze over museum courtyards everywhere smacks of suburban commercialization."

What do you think? Is the new courtyard a "gratuitous display of engineering virtuosity" as Filler puts it, or an exquisite juxtaposition of classic and modern?