Escape the Office: Renwick Retreat

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This week, Express kicks off a new semi-regular feature called Escape the Office, where we'll offer some non-cubicle options to enrich your workday near your place of employment. Today, we kick the series off for those who work at or near Farragut Square.

IT MAY SEEM LIKE a bad time to visit the Renwick Gallery. Its exhibition on Ruth Duckworth has closed and the 2007 Renwick Craft Invitational doesn't start until March. But that lull makes it a perfect time to swing through the more than 145-year-old museum at Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street NW, just steps from the White House and plenty of Farragut Square-area office buildings. So tell the boss you need some coffee or have a doctor's appointment and plot your downtown workday escape.

Originally designed as Washington's first private art gallery, the old Corcoran Gallery was taken over in 1899 by the U.S. Court of Claims, which occupied it until the mid-1960s. It was re-opened as a gallery under the auspices of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1972 as the Renwick, a space to display American art, crafts and design.

While the Renwick sits across the way from the heavily trafficked White House pedestrian precinct, causal tourists and locals alike often overlook the museum. Which, of course, is why you shouldn't — that means its collection, which deserves more attention than it gets, can be perused without braving the visiting hordes.

» GRAND SALON: The gallery's second floor is the perfect size for a mid-day escape. Its centerpiece is the Grand Salon, home of the George Catlin Indian Gallery. In the 1830s, Catlin embarked on five expeditions in the American West to paint its native peoples before the nation's expansion destroyed their way of life.

Boasting a combination of landscapes, portraits and other depictions of various Plains Indian tribes, the Grand Salon looks almost like a page from a yearbook, with paintings hung in rows and columns, as was often the case in galleries of the mid-19th century. Don't worry, there are picture guides who can help describe the paintings for you.

When the Grand Salon is quiet, it offers an incomparably serene browsing experience. And if you have it all to yourself, it can be a one-of-a-kind retreat you aren't going to find anywhere else near your office.

» PERMANENT COLLECTIONS: While you could, in theory, just stick to the Grand Salon with its comfortable seating, the Renwick's second floor, where the permanent collections of American crafts are on display, is worth scooping yourself up to explore.

If you're a civil servant or otherwise contribute to the federal machine, be sure take a close look at Kim Schmahmann's "Bureau of Bureaucracy." This meticulously crafted bureau — constructed with various hardwoods, veneers, marquetry, mother of pearl, gold leaf and brass — is a more modern interpretation of the Cabinets of Curiosities that were fashionable in the 17th century.

From Schmahmann's Web site:

Behind the first door of the Upper Case is a marquetry of four books. These books represent the dual character of bureaucracy in our lives. Elements of bureaucracies, as do the elements of our lives, both enable and constrain us. Thus, "Power" which facilitates forceful action, can also be overwhelming, and as in this case, can push "Humanity" out of the way. "Rationality" which has supported much of our industrialized way of life, is also sometimes at odds with it, and can appear, as here, upside-down and opposed to "Humanity."

» LUNCH/COFFEE BREAK: You've cleared your mind at the Renwick, but want to fill your belly with a little lunch or a hot drink. Where to go? For coffee, the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street NW offers your standard array: Cosi, Starbucks and Caribou. Depending on the combination of tourists and office workers closer to the White House, heading to the Lafayette Square location of Teaism, might be a better option.

Finding a stress-free lunch in the area can also be a challenge, since all of your fellow workers and not-so-fellow tourists need to eat, too. The area immediately surrounding the Renwick doesn't offer much aside from the standard fare. One standout, Breadline, is a local favorite. Expect a long line at high noon, but as The Post's Tom Sietsema wrote in his 2006 Fall Dining Guide, "that's a small price to pay for lunches packed with so much thought."

Other options include the nearby Potbelly's sandwich shop. While its location across from the Renwick might not boast a political memorabilia collection as large as the one at Old Ebbitt Grill on 15th Street NW, the sandwich chain has incorporated a decent selection of political Americana into its faux-Great Depression interior.

» HAVE A WORKDAY GETAWAY you think we should know about? E-mail us at freeride [at] readexpress [dot] com.