Almost everything is free: the national collections line the Mall, and America's first museum of modern art began in a collector's living room.
John Russell Pope's West Building (1941) and I. M. Pei's triangular East Building (1978), linked underground. The only painting by Leonardo in the Americas, Ginevra de' Benci, is here.
The Smithsonian's museum of modern and contemporary art, in Gordon Bunshaft's concrete drum (1974), with a sunken sculpture garden across the road.
Two museums sharing the Greek Revival Patent Office Building, with Foster + Partners' glass canopy over the Kogod Courtyard (2007).
Duncan Phillips opened his house as a museum in 1921: Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, Bonnard, and a small room built around four Rothkos.
Rooms, ruins and curiosities: the city's other museum.
James Hampton, a government janitor, spent about fourteen years building an altar of gold and silver foil, cardboard and old furniture in a rented garage. It was found after his death in 1964.
Terraced gardens by Beatrix Farrand descending a hillside, and a museum where Philip Johnson built eight glass domes for pre-Columbian art (1963).
A Gothic cathedral finished only in 1990, with more than a hundred gargoyles and grotesques, one of them Darth Vader, from a children's design competition.
A private museum in the Maryland countryside, free with a timed pass booked ahead: Thomas Phifer's pavilions and Richard Serra in the fields, about 30 minutes by car.
National Gallery West Building at opening → the tunnel to the East Building → the Hirshhorn garden → lunch → the Kogod Courtyard → the Phillips before closing.