Kennedy Center Wall Sconces Anomaly

Kennedy Center Wall Sconces

[Full Disclosure: I am a current employee of the Kennedy Center. Any opinions expressed in this piece are my own personal views and do not represent that of the Center, its management, or its staff.]

I walk along the Kennedy Center's Grand Foyer a lot. It's a very scenic way to get from place to place. At one point or another, I discovered an anomaly in the wall sconces.

From 1971 to 2004, all the wall sconces in the Grand Foyer had four strings of lights in each of their columns. This is still the case on the river side of the hall.

River-side wall sconces in the Grand Foyer.

In 2004, accessibility ramps were added along the theater side of the hall. With this, the wall sconces along that wall were shortened. With their decreasing length as the ramp gets higher, this choice seems to have been decided to avoid people reaching the sconces. When the Kennedy Center first opened up, the public went Kennedy-crazy and stole many things (from pieces of carpet to an entire wall sconce), so the reasoning is not unfounded.

One of the Opera House ramps with wall sconces of
decreasing lengths.

Which brings us to the anomaly. On the Eisenhower Theater side of the grand foyer, the sconce's lengths are 4 and 3.

Eisenhower theater wall sconces

On the Concert Hall side, the sconce's lengths are 3 & 2.

Concert Hall wall sconces

This anomaly is not very apparent because the Concert Hall and Eisenhower Theater are on opposite sides of the long Grand Foyer.

Why is it like this and not matching? I do not know. I'll try to learn why, but until then --

- fin - 

Sources:

"Miracle on the Potomac: The Kennedy Center from the Beginning" by Ralph Elihu Becker

Stronger Oversight of Fire Safety Issues, Construction Projects, and Financial Management Needed (Page 13)