On Thursday, seven institutions under the Smithsonian, located on the southern end of National Park, were temporarily closed after a failure of cooling systems.
Reportedly, the issue began after an outage at the Heating Operations and Transmission Division (HOTD) plant at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). The mechanical failure completely disrupted the supply of chilled water at the National Park in Washington D.C. This closed the cooling system on the southern edge of the park.
Looking at the inconvenience it might cause to visitors due to the absence of air conditioning, the administration decided to shut down the seven museums. The impacted museums were: National Museum of the American Indian, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Museum of Asian Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Castle, Arts and Industries Building, and S. Dillon Ripley Center.
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Other museums on the property, like the National Museum of American History, remained open. The Smithsonian gave out a statement: “The buildings were closed after an outage at the General Service Administration’s Heating Operations and Transmission Division plant disrupted the chilled water supply needed to support the Smithsonian’s cooling systems and humidity controls in South Mall museums. Once GSA resolves this issue, the Smithsonian will return to normal operations.” All seven museums reopened normally on Friday after the mechanical failure was resolved.
