The National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C., United States, is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit institution; it is adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and the Judiciary Square Metro station.
The museum hosts various temporary exhibits in galleries around the spacious Great Hall. Past exhibitions have highlighted innovation in parking garages; green building and sustainable design; architects, including Eero Saarinen and Marcel Breuer; and tools as art. Exhibitions have included Designing Tomorrow: America's World Fairs of the 1930s; LEGO® Architecture: Towering Ambition, which includes 15 iconic buildings including the Empire State Building and Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater made entirely of LEGO bricks; and Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meière, a retrospective on American Art Deco artist Hildreth Meiere.
Visitors from around the world come for exhibitions, public programs, family festivals, and tours to gain insight into the history and future of the world we create for ourselves. The Museum's lecture series such as Spotlight on Design and For the Greener Good welcome the architects and designers from around the world to discuss their work. Youth education programs such as CityVision and Design Apprenticeship Program and a variety of school programs introduce kids and teachers to design education as a hands-on way of enhancing math, science, and art skills simultaneously.
The National Building Museum Shop has been recognized in local and national media as the “best museum shop.” The Museum Shop sells books about the built environment and an array of housewares, educational toys, watches, and items for an office, all with an emphasis on design. The National Building Museum Shop was honored in 2007 as the “Best Museum Store” in the country by Niche magazine, "Best All-Around Museum Shop" in the region by the The Washington Post, a “Top Shop” by the Washingtonian, and named best museum shop in DC by National Geographic Traveler's blog, Intelligent Travel in July 2009. In 2010, the Huffington Post included the National Building Museum in a story, "Museums with Amazing Gift Shops."
Read more about National Building Museum: Pension Building, Becoming A Museum, American Politics, Awards, Building Images
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