The Globe and Mail

The National Museum of the American Indian, by Douglas Cardinal, is the most important building to go up on the Washington Mall in decades. And it is the most significant work of architecture that Cardinal has produced in nearly 40 years. That his client, the Smithsonian Institution, abandoned the architect while he was clamouring to produce something extraordinary is pathetic but not surprising. Many of the world's greatest architects, from Frank Lloyd Wright to Louis Kahn, have known bankruptcy, professional abuse and the extreme loneliness that comes from wanting too much for architecture. The National Museum of the American Indian -- the 18th of the Smithsonian's museums -- is a craggy cliff that occupies the last available site on the Mall. It sits on the Mall's south side, a good, hard throw from the U.S. Capitol. The new museum forces visitors to wander past a series of cascading pools, trees and wetlands before reaching its main entrance. That entrance faces east, toward the dawn and new beginnings.