The Jewel of the City

This thesis topic was selected in order to explore a connection between a passion for the beauty of gemstones and craftsmanship of jewelry making to provide a metaphor for making beautiful architecture. The direction of the thesis made manifest connections and similarities between integrating art, craft and making beautiful jewel pieces and architectural spaces for a building devoted to housing the kinds of precious items that would be reflected in a city such as Washington DC. The appreciation of outstanding factors in gems and jewel making would be analogous to the precision, design and level of detail explored in an architectural thesis which aims to celebrate these relationships by applying them to the design for a museum of jewels and gemstones for Rock Creek Park in Washington DC.