NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM ANNOUNCES SUMMER AND FALL 2023 EXHIBITIONS

Today, the National Building Museum announced its upcoming exhibitions for the remainder of 2023. The Museum continues to fulfill its mission of inspiring curiosity about the built environment with engaging new exhibitions that include a tour of global architecture made entirely of LEGO^® bricks, an inspiring new Summer Block Party installation, a large-scale outdoor mural display created by D.C. high school students and an exploration of architecture inspired by children’s books designed for an intergenerational audience.

Indoor exhibitions coming this summer include:

BRICK CITY

Opening Saturday, May 27

Brick City will celebrate iconic architecture from cities around the world through carefully recreated constructions made from LEGO^® bricks by U.K-based artist Warren Elsmore. Visitors will take a world tour discovering new destinations across all seven continents that include: lively streetscapes from Cartagena, Columbia; Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans; intricate temples from India to Mexico; and imaginative castles from medieval Japan to modern Las Vegas. 

Builders young and old can channel their creativity in an interactive area where they can build their own masterpieces out of LEGO^® bricks. An expansive “graffiti wall” will provide a canvas to create pixelated art using the toy bricks, while building areas will prompt visitors of all ages to build imaginative cities of their own. 

“As the largest producer of clay brick in the United States, General Shale is pleased to be the presenting sponsor of Brick City,” Luke Guinn, Director of Marketing for North America said. “Brick has a rich history, which spans the ages of time. This exhibition is a wonderful demonstration of the global connection we share through architecture, and aligns with our mission to express the sustainable design flexibility in our products.”

SUMMER BLOCK PARTY

Opening Saturday, July 1 through Labor Day–Monday, September 4

(More details coming in late May)

Since 2015, the Museum’s Summer Block Party installations have been awe-inspiring, innovative, and interactive experiences that temporarily transform the Museum’s historic home and challenge visitor perceptions of the built environment.

This summer, artist and architect Suchi Reddy, founder and principal of Reddymade Design Studio in New York, has been selected to transform the Museum’s Great Hall with an elegant and provocative new installation titled Look Here. Best known for her large-scale projects that connect the emotional quality of human engagement with space, Reddy is the sixth designer to produce the Summer Block Party’s signature installation, and the first BIPOC woman to partner with the Museum on this annual exhibition.

“We cannot wait to unveil Suchi Reddy’s design for the 2023 Summer Block Party,” Aileen Fuchs, President and Executive Director of the National Building Museum said. “It is certain to spark conversation and questions about how form can follow feeling.”

Reddy’s architectural and artistic practice is informed by her research at the intersection of neuroscience and the arts. Working towards a larger idea of design justice, she is dedicated to expanding our notions of empathy, equity, and agency—where the importance of design is recognized as an asset for the benefit of all, not just for some.

“We’re so excited to partner with the National Building Museum to present Look Here,” said Patrick Phillippi, Amazon’s Head of Community Engagement in the Greater Washington Region. “At Amazon, we’re passionate about innovation and that innovative spirit is clearly reflected in the Museum’s summer installations. We can’t wait to discover Look Here to see how Reddy and her team have harnessed the power of perspective to understand and view life and the world around us.”

Additional details of Reddy’s design and associated programming will be announced in late May.

A special outdoor display will be revealed on the Museum’s West Lawn in mid-May:

TRANSFORM DC

Community Day Celebration on Thursday, May 18

Murals will be on display through August 2023

In January 2023, the National Building Museum screened the Alice Street documentary as part of its Architecture and Design Film Festival. Taking inspiration from that film, students from more than ten D.C. public high schools worked collaboratively to create large scale mural panels that examine the past, present, and future of their school buildings and their role in the surrounding communities.

These murals will be brought together as a part of a city-wide culminating public installation on the West Lawn of the Museum at a Community Day Celebration on Thursday, May 18. The Transform DC project is part of the project-based learning Cornerstone curriculum for grades 9 through 12.

After an inspiring summer, the Museum opens a new long-term interactive exhibition this fall:

BUILDING STORIES

Opening Saturday, November 18

Roman Antics 1 and 2 photos above

Building Stories is a new long-term exhibition that will bring kids and adults alike on an immersive exploration of the world of architecture, engineering, construction, and design found in the pages of children’s books. The exhibition is designed for an intergenerational audience, with special attention paid to children in grades K-3.

Curated by the nation’s leading expert on children’s literature, Leonard Marcus, Building Stories will call attention to the built environment’s role as an important, and often overlooked, character in children’s literature. By activating these stories and their built worlds, and the early foundations for how we begin to understand our surroundings, Building Stories allows visitors to investigate the role the built environment plays in our own lives and communities—and how we can be agents of change for a more sustainable and equitable future.

What We’ll Build photos above

In the exhibition visitors will interact with familiar classics and new favorites through hands-on activities, media installations, sketching, reading, and building stories of their own. Award-winning author/illustrators David Macaulay and Oliver Jeffers have collaborated on this exhibition to create original environments that will offer insight into their creative processes and engage visitors to better understand the worlds created in books and encourage their role in making a better world. 

“AARP is proud to support Building Stories at the National Building Museum to help bring generations together through storytelling so caregivers and family members of all ages can learn from one another and foster deeper connections,” said AARP Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff Kevin Donnellan.

“It’s our hope that Building Stories will become a new and important hub of activity in our nation’s capital,” added Aileen Fuchs.

BRICK CITY SPONSOR

General Shale is the presenting sponsor for Brick City.

SUMMER BLOCK PARTY SPONSOR

Amazon is the presenting sponsor for Summer Block Party.

BUILDING STORIES SPONSORS

Building Stories is sponsored by National Endowment for the Humanities, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, AARP, National Endowment for the Arts, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, STUDIOS Architecture, The Field Fund, Whayne and Ursula Quin, American Society of Landscape Architects, DPR Construction, George Corey and Cynthia Krus, RCM&D, AECOM, Armstrong World Industries, Rebecca Ballard and John Means, Leanna Beaber, Capital One, Bonnie and Louis Cohen, DAVIS Construction, Anthony and Keiko Greenberg, Judy and Darrel Rippeteau, TJ and Elizabeth Wilkinson.