Family
Building Zone
long-term
Monday through Saturday: 10 am–4 pm; Sunday: 11 am–4 pm
Ages 2–6 with adult supervision.
The Building Zone introduces children to the building arts through play in an interactive gallery of hands-on activities for the Museum’s youngest visitors.
Tuesday, February 5, 10:30 am–Noon
Book of the Month: Katy and the Big Snow
Readings at 10:30 and 11:30 am.
Free with admission to the Building Zone. Recommended for ages 3–5.
Join us in the Building Zone for an interactive reading of Virginia Lee Burton’s Katy and the Big Snow and learn how a snow plow can help a town.
Saturday, February 16, 10 am–4:30 pm
Discover Engineering Family Day
Free. Recommended for ages 4–12.
Learn how engineering is involved in everyday life at Discover Engineering Family Day. Make slime, build a rocket, construct a boat and put it through a lock system, learn about the science of popcorn, experience a tsunami wave tank, and more. Do activities with Curious George and The Cat in the Hat from PBS Kids!
Talks
(the numbers and letters at the end of each entry indicate that attendees could earn professional continuing education credits)
Saturday, February 2, 11 am-12:30 pm
Portraits in Design: Frederick Law Olmsted
$12 Member | $12 Student | $20 Non-member. Prepaid registration required.
The name Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) is practically synonymous with the profession of landscape architecture. Ethan Carr, PhD, FASLA, considers Olmsted’s influential career and discusses his work, including New York’s Central Park, Boston’s Emerald Necklace, and Washington, D.C.’s U.S. Capitol Grounds. 1.5 LU HSW (AIA) / 1.5 CM (AICP) / 1.5 LA CES (ASLA)
Monday, February 4, 6:30–8 pm
Sweet & Salt: Water and the Dutch
$12 Member | $12 Student | $20 Non-member. Prepaid registration required.
Tracy Metz’s book Sweet & Salt: Water and the Dutch addresses the complex and inescapable relationship between water and the Netherlands as sea levels rise, rivers swell, and storms and droughts multiply. Sweet & Salt shows innovative solutions of Dutch design practice for a new relationship to water and offers a new perspective on living with water in the future. 1.5 LU HSW-SD (AIA) / 1.5 CM (AICP) / 1.5 LA CES (ASLA)
Tuesday, February 5, 6:30–8 pm
Diversity Fueling Innovation
Henry C. Turner Prize awarded to Society of Women Engineers
$12 Museum and SWE Members | $12 Students | $20 Non-member. Prepaid registration required.
The National Building Museum is proud to award the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) its prestigious Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology. SWE executive director and CEO Betty Shanahan discusses how a diverse work force is a more productive and creative one. 1.5 LU (AIA)
Thursday, February 7, 12:30–2 pm
The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Detroit
$10 Member | $10 Student | $12 Non-member. Prepaid registration required.
Once the nation’s fifth-largest city, Detroit has lost nearly 60% of its population since the mid-1950s. Panelists discuss the challenges facing a shrinking Detroit and solutions for revitalizing the city. 1.5 LU HSW (AIA) / 1.5 CM (AICP) / 1.5 LA CES (ASLA)
Tuesday, February 19, 6:30–8 pm
Stories of Community Development in D.C.
Free. Registration required.
A panel of experts discusses three decades of redevelopment in Washington, D.C. and how that history informs the future of national policy toward cities and neighborhoods. This program is presented in collaboration with and marks the 30th anniversary of DC-LISC, publisher of Becoming What You Can Be: Stories of Community Development in Washington D.C. A book signing follows the program.
Monday, February 25, 6:30–8 pm
Cultural Drivers
$12 Members | $12 Students | $20 Non-member. Prepaid registration required.
Municipalities and non-profits around the world construct libraries, concert halls, and public art with the hopes of encouraging investment in underdeveloped urban areas, improving the quality of life for residents and attracting tourist dollars. Panelists from across the country, including representatives from Miami’s New World Symphony and Phoenix, Arizona’s Public Art Program, share approaches to engaging their communities to create cultural catalysts. 1.5 LU HSW (AIA) / 1.5 CM (AICP) / 1.5 LA CES (ASLA)
Tuesday, February 26, 6:30–8 pm
Reconnecting the Grid
$12 Member | $12 Student | $20 Non-member. Prepaid registration required.
Plans are now moving ahead to deck over the exposed portion of I-395 and weave D.C.’s F and G Streets NW back into the urban fabric. Experts discuss the design, engineering, and construction challenges that will ultimately produce 2.2 million square feet of LEED® Platinum mixed-use space. Panelists include Sean C. Cahill, vice president of development, Property Group Partners; Roger K. Lewis, FAIA, architect and planner; Harriet Tregoning, director, D.C. Office of Planning; and moderator Jess Zimbabwe, executive director, ULI Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership. 1.5 LU HSW-SD (AIA) / 1.5 CM (AICP) / 1.5 LA CES (ASLA)
Exhibitions
PLAY WORK BUILD
long-term
Build them up…and knock them down! Create the tallest towers, the most ridiculous shapes, the truly impossible structures. Children and adults alike are encouraged to put their skills to the test and let their imaginations run wild with blocks—small, big, and virtual—in this new exhibition that also features a selection of architectural and construction toys from the Museum’s collection.
Detroit Is No Dry Bones: Photographs by Camilo José Vergara
through February 18, 2013 Last Chance!
Sociologist Vergara has documented Detroit’s decline for over 25 years. His photographs illustrate the tension between Detroit’s industrial ruins and its surviving communities as the city has continued to shrink and reinvent itself.
Detroit Disassembled: Photographs by Andrew Moore
through February 18, 2013 Last Chance!
Andrew Moore reveals the tragic beauty of Detroit’s ruins. Thirty monumentally-scaled photographs depict the windowless grand hotels, barren factories, collapsing churches, and blocks reclaimed by prairie grass.
House & Home
long-term
Exhibition Tours: Mondays and Fridays at 2:30 pm, Wednesdays at 10:30 am, and Saturdays at 10:45 am. (based on docent availability)
House & Home features a kaleidoscopic array of photographs, objects, models, and films that takes visitors on a tour of houses both familiar and surprising, through past and present, exploring American domestic life and residential architecture.
Investigating Where We Live
through May 26, 2013
Investigating Where We Live presents teens’ interpretations of D.C. neighborhoods through photography, writing, and original artwork. This year’s participants explored Anacostia.
For more information about this museum, see our National Building Museum page.
