Air Shaft Mural

The trompe-l’oeil opens up the 95-foot tower to an illusory Capitol dome several blocks north of the actual Federal landmark, sometimes startling visitors driving on Massachusetts Avenue. Below, an imaginary curved coliseum is purposely off in perspective from the dome. Although Lewton insists that his intention was simply to play with form and space, the partially obscured, inaccessible Capitol anchored with mismatched and off-scale columns suggests a myriad of meanings.