At Wednesday's black-tie gala for the fifth anniversary of the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, lighting and subtle decor elements helped evoke the evening's "Winter Wonderland" theme inside the 10-story airplane hangar located near Dulles Airport. Subtle shadows of naked birch branches were projected onto the hangar's massive doors. "With gray cement floors, with the size and scope of the museum, with the steel and industrial cold feeling, the challenge was to bring a soft feel," said in-house special event manager Megan Wenderoff, who went out of her way to avoid cliché holiday trappings. The dinner for 400, sponsored by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, was a way of thanking museum benefactors.
A companion facility to the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall, the venue, with its silvery planes and space orbiters suspended overhead, is regularly booked with corporate parties. But for the anniversary event, Wenderoff wanted to do something unique. "I said to the [vendors] that I've used in the past, who know how difficult this space can be, 'What have you always wanted to try?'"
Robin Lyttle of Lighting by Lyttle took on the sleek SR-71 Blackbird that acted as a divider between the cocktail and dining areas. She bathed the belly with lavender light and projected rotating gobos into the rear engines, which appeared to swirl. "A lot of times in museums, the artifacts are splashed in a lot of colors. But we were very sensitive to keep the artifacts in true color because we don't want to distort them, not for this audience," said Lyttle. She worked with the museum's David Adcock to light the entrance foyer with a celestial effect as well as wash the outside of the building in red, blue, yellow, and green. The exterior treatment was a first for the center, and required FAA approval because of the nearby airport runways.
A Vista's Annie Senatore used a movable grouping of planters with 12-foot painted-white birch branches to create a divider between the dining area and the dessert stations, which circled the space shuttle Enterprise in the nearby James S. McDonnell Space Hangar. The decor continued to the 40 round dining tables, each of which held a triple centerpiece of white hydrangeas, roses, and calla lilies as well as two balls formed of tightly packed white carnations. The blossoms had just a touch of glitter, which, according to John Arndt of Spot Floral Design, gave the look of morning dew. "I added little bits of sparkle, but just a little," he said. "You don't want it to look tacky."
The mosaic mirrored chargers, which echoed the steely presence of the aircraft overhead, sat atop sheer shimmery linens. "[We wanted] to bring texture and movement, without being too holiday," said Chris Dunn of Catering by Windows. A first course of scallop atop risotto accented with fresh and dried apple was followed by a composed salad of frisee with a small, pear-shaped herbal cheese. The main course was Kobe short rib with piped mashed potato and a tiny stuffed tomato.
