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In the summer of 2005, National Gallery of Art personnel and a consulting engineer were chasing down a leak on a roof terrace atop the gallery’s marble-clad, I.M. Pei-designed East Building. Suddenly the beginnings of what would turn out to be a far more serious problem caught someone’s eye. One or two of the 2-by-5, 438-pound marble panels on the building’s main air shaft were tilting out.
HOLY SHIT RUUUN
Photo of the east wing of the National Gallery of Art courtesy of Darrow Montgomery.