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Past Exhibitions
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Life Without Leaves
September 17, 2008 -
November 2, 2008
Students at the Art Institute of Washington display before and after photos of landmarks with and without trees.
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The Art of Recycling: The Coolest Show in Town
August 25, 2008 -
September 2, 2008
The National Building Museum will be cooling off this summer when it hosts a special exhibition called The Art of Recycling: The Coolest Show in Town. From August 25 until September 2, the Great Hall will be filled with energy-efficient and environmentally-themed artwork created from old refrigerators as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s ENERGY STAR® “Recycle My Old Fridge Campaign.”
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Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future
May 3, 2008 -
August 24, 2008
This exhibition is the first major retrospective of the work of architect Eero Saarinen, designer of iconic works such as the St. Louis Arch and "Tulip" furniture.
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Marcel Breuer: Design and Architecture
November 3, 2007 -
February 17, 2008
This retrospective is the first exhibition to dedicate equal attention to the various creative periods in Breuer's career. It begins with a nearly comprehensive survey of his furniture designs, categorized according to the materials used, with successive explorations in solid wood, tubular steel, aluminium, and laminated plywood.
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Lasting Foundations: The Art of Architecture in Africa
October 6, 2007 -
January 13, 2008
The exhibition included original artifacts such as textiles, intricately carved house posts, doors, locks, and window frames. Among the many images featured were photographs showing murals and sculpture on buildings, images of contemporary African architecture, and a film showing the annual re-plastering of the Djenne mosque, the largest mud structure in the world.
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David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture
June 23, 2007 -
May 4, 2008
David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture focuses on the artist’s use of drawing to research historic buildings, to render architecture from engaging perspectives, to reveal underlying structures, and to critique and redesign, in a playful manner, the contemporary landscape of American architecture.
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Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century
January 13, 2007 -
October 8, 2007
This exhibition traces Shakespearean theaters from the 16th century to the present.
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Investigating Where We Live 2006
August 19, 2006 -
November 29, 2006
Exhibit showcases projects from the National Building Museum's outreach program.
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Prairie Skyscraper: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Price Tower
June 17, 2006 -
September 17, 2006
This exhibition features more than 100 drawings, models, photographs, documents, building components, and furnishings that illuminate how Wright’s dream materialized in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Prairie Skyscraper is presented in honor of the 50th anniversary of this remarkable building.
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The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design
May 20, 2006 -
June 24, 2007
The first major exhibition to explore the entire field of green residential design.
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Newer Orleans: A Shared Space
April 29, 2006 -
July 30, 2006
In its U.S. debut, Newer Orleans—A Shared Space questions whether the iconic city could have a different future in which architecture can serve to create a new sense of social commitment, political involvement, and engagement with the landscape following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
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Julius Shulman: Modernity and the Metropolis
April 1, 2006 -
July 30, 2006
The 83 original prints in this exhibition were selected from the portfolio of more than 70,000 images recently acquired by the Getty Research Institute, and provide multiple narratives of the changing aesthetics, technologies, and lifestyles framed by Julius Shulman’s lens.
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A Building Tradition: The Work of the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts
November 5, 2005 -
January 8, 2006
This exhibition presents artwork by the students, alumni, and staff of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts. The school offers grounding in the philosophy and practical craft skills of the arts and architecture of Islam, as well as the traditional arts of other civilizations.
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Civitas: Traditional Urbanism in Contemporary Practice
November 5, 2005 -
January 8, 2006
Civitas: Traditional Urbanism in Contemporary Practice explores the principles that underpin the traditional urbanism movement.
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Investigating Where We Live 2005
August 13, 2005 -
February 19, 2006
Exhibit showcases the results of the Museum’s outreach program.
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Jewish Washington: Scrapbook of an American Community
June 24, 2005 -
July 4, 2006
In 1795, shortly after the site of the nation’s capital was selected, the first Jew arrived in the new federal district of Washington. Over the next two centuries, he was followed by tens of thousands of Jews, all of whom have become a part of the history that this exhibition chronicles.
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Kids’ View of the City 2005: Eaton Elementary School Student Projects
June 7, 2005 -
July 31, 2005
Kids’ View of the City features projects designed by Washington, D.C., elementary school students who examined their schools’ neighborhoods during the academic year.
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Tools of the Imagination
March 5, 2005 -
October 10, 2005
The exhibition Tools of the Imagination peeks inside the world of design to reveal how architects have produced the drawings, models, renderings, and now, animations, which show us the promise of what might be built.
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OPEN: New Designs for Public Space
January 5, 2005 -
May 15, 2005
OPEN explores innovative projects from around the world as it explores the role of public space in an age of heightened security and increased electronic interaction.
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Origami as Architecture
November 4, 2004 -
April 10, 2005
In Origami as Architecture, works from origami architecture master Takaaki Kihara from Japan are displayed, including some of the world's largest works of origami architecture.
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5 Friends from Japan: Children in Japan Today
November 4, 2004 -
February 13, 2005
This exhibition gives visitors a feel for contemporary life in Japan through the eyes of five children.
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Kid's View of the City 2004: Eaton Elementary School Student Projects
May 23, 2004 -
August 1, 2004
Exhibit features art projects by first and second grade students from John Eaton Elementary School in Washington, D.C.
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Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio: Community Architecture
May 22, 2004 -
September 6, 2004
This exhibition includes both models and photographs of the Rural Studio’s completed projects, as well as a number of Mockbee’s large-scale paintings and sketchbooks inspired by his work at the Rural Studio. The installation also features a unique "carpet temple." This prototypical Rural Studio structure, created from discarded carpet yarn, was both designed and built by students from the Rural Studio.
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Envisioning Architecture: Drawings from the Museum of Modern Art, New York
March 20, 2004 -
June 20, 2004
This exhibition, which features the work of more than 60 architects, represents the breadth and variety of the past 100 years of architecture and highlights the artistry of this extraordinary collection
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Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset
February 28, 2004 -
August 8, 2004
Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset explores how the new emphasis on design excellence in affordable housing has yielded encouraging alternatives that create substantial assets for both residents and their communities.
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Symphony in Steel: Ironworkers and the Walt Disney Concert Hall
January 31, 2004 -
November 28, 2004
This exhibition of 100 black-and-white photographs taken by Gil Garcetti celebrates the remarkable achievements of the ironworkers who assembled the steel frame and the finish ironworkers who applied the stainless steel skin to the building.
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DC Builds: The Anacostia Waterfront
January 17, 2004 -
June 6, 2004
DC Builds: The Anacostia Waterfront tells the river’s complex story: its ecology, its life as a working river and built environment, and current efforts to restore it as a place of beauty and civic potential.
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Tools As Art: The Hechinger Collection--Instruments of Change
January 1, 2004 -
February 9, 2004
Through more than sixty sculptures, paintings, photographs, crafts, prints, and drawings, Tools as Art: The Hechinger Collection - Instruments of Change traces the use of tools as a hallmark of civilization and a source of artistic creativity.
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Stories of Home: Photographs by Bill Bamberger
December 3, 2003 -
March 7, 2004
Drawn from Bamberger’s work in Chattanooga, San Antonio, and North Carolina, the exhibition pairs compelling, large-scale portraits and intimate visual essays with excerpted interviews to reveal the powerful impact homeownership has not just on the lives of lower-income Americans, but on all of us.
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Rowhouse Redux: Washington Architects Renew City Living
November 14, 2003 -
January 18, 2004
Choosing between two actual sites in Washington, D.C., members of the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA/DC) have created proposals for rowhouses of modest size and cost that respond to the demands of contemporary urban living.
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Masonry Variations
October 18, 2003 -
April 4, 2004
Masonry has a long history as a building medium, and in one form or another it is represented in the architecture of almost every culture in the world.
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Up, Down, Across: Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Sidewalks
September 12, 2003 -
April 18, 2004
Elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks have radically transformed our buildings, our cities, and our lives. Viewed in their historical and design contexts — as mechanical systems, as the inspiration for new architectural forms, and through their presentation in film — these devices become objects of fascination and vehicles for discovery.
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Big & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century
January 17, 2003 -
June 22, 2003
Big & Green--Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century
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The Turner City Collection: Rendering a Century of Building
April 22, 2002 -
November 3, 2002
This exhibition features nine "Turner Cities" --composite drawings showing all of the structures built by Turner Construction Company in a given year -- along with examples of construction photographs representing noteworthy structures from the selected drawings.
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Online Exhibitions
Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete
Past Exhibitions by Topic
See a comprehensive list of all exhibitions since the Museum's opening in 1985 by clicking here.
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