The National Building Museum - Washington DC

The impressive Great Hall, entrance to The National Building Museum and host for my Australian Endeavour Executive Award from Jan - May 2013.

The National Building Museum is considered America's premier cultural institution for public programming, youth education and exhibitions about the built environment; including but not limited to: engineering, architecture, construction and planning.

Go to Link:
http://www.nbm.org/
for all programs, exhibitions and resources

Homeschool Day - students test their egg packaging from the first floor

The education department within the Museum produces a range of programs for field experts and the general public, including preschool and school aged students and their teachers.

Temporary exhibits are staged in galleries around the Great Hall and have highlighted everything from innovation in parking garages to green building and sustainable design, architects and tools as art.

The Grand Hall is over 6,000 square metres in size and is used as a meeting point for school groups, an education space for building and testing and rented out for private functions.

The education department is located on the 4th floor, reached by walking along a narrow walkway with an original handrail at 900mm. In the 1980s an additional handrail was added to raise the height to 1100mm, which makes little difference if you suffer from vertigo.

 

The Museum is located downtown, off the Mall, adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Judiciary Square Metro. It's housed in the former Pension Bureau that dates back to 1887 and has been the site of sixteen Presidential Inaugural balls but alas, not this year.

Current Exhibitions

There are two impressive and moving photography exhibitions, both on the decline of the city of Detroit.

Detroit Is No Dry Bones

Photographs by Camilo José Vergara

September 30, 2012 - February 18, 2013

http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/detroit-is-no-dry-bones.html


 
Former Michigan Central Station, View from Dalzelle Street at 15th Street, Detroit, 2010
Credit: Photo © Camilo José Vergara

and

Detroit Disassembled

Photographs by Andrew Moore

September 30, 2012 - February 18, 2013

http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/detroit-disassembled.html

 

Andrew Moore, Birches growing in decayed books, Detroit Public Schools Book Depository, 2009, digital chromogenic print scanned from film negative, 62 x 97.5 in., Collection of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell
Credit: Andrew Moore

Another great exhibition on at the moment:

House & Home 

April 28, 2012 - May 1, 2017 

http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/house-and-home.html 

'An array of photographs, objects, models, and films that takes us on a tour of houses both familiar and surprising, through past and present, challenging our ideas about what it means to be at home in America'.



Of particular interest for students and teachers are the walls made from materials used in residential construction ranging from adobe bricks to structural insulated panels (SIPs).

 

In another gallery, a large-scale two-screen film presentation takes visitors inside a variety of contemporary architect-designed homes. In the final gallery, interviews with developers, contractors, residents, and real-estate agents give visitors a different kind of look at six communities.