Past Exhibitions

Form and Movement: Photographs by Philip Trager

July 11, 2009 - January 3, 2010

Philip Trager’s extraordinary depictions of architecture and the human body illustrate symmetry and geometry, and explore relationships between shapes, the play of light, and fluidity of form.
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Green Community

October 23, 2008 - November 29, 2009

Green Community explores the origins of our precarious ecological situation and introduces communities large and small where citizens, political leaders, planning and design professionals, developers, and government agencies are working together for a more sustainable future.
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Storefront Churches: Photographs by Camilo José Vergara

June 20, 2009 - November 29, 2009

These richly textured color images narrate Camilo José Vergara’s thirty year exploration of the eclectic mix of buildings that house places of worship in some of America’s poorest urban neighborhoods.
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The Places We Live

September 18, 2009 - November 15, 2009

In a multimedia installation, visitors are admitted into the homes of 20 different families in four slums from around the world: Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya; Dharavi in Mumbai India; several barrios within Caracas, Venezuela; and the kampongs of Jakarta, Indonesia and are compelled to consider what it means to live in a city in the 21st century.
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Architecture of Authority: Photographs by Richard Ross

April 18, 2009 - August 16, 2009

This series of large-scale color photographs by Richard Ross captures the essence of “powerful” spaces from courthouses to prisons to mental institutions.
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Detour: Architecture and Design along 18 National Tourist Routes in Norway

January 28, 2009 - May 25, 2009

Explore the ways the Norwegian government has been changing their landscape with amazing architectural projects along popular tourist roads. Scenic overlooks, rest areas, and service facilities are transformed into works of art with sweeping lines, bold colors, and unexpected textures in Detour: Architecture and Design along 18 National Tourist Routes.
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Investigating Where We Live 2008

July 30, 2008 - January 19, 2009

The Investigating Where We Live exhibition features students' insights and perspectives from the summer outreach program.
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Special Presentation: The World Trade Center Model

November 18, 2008 - January 14, 2009

The National Building Museum, in association with the American Architectural Foundation, is honored to present the only remaining original presentation model of the World Trade Center.
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A Celebration of HRH The Prince of Wales’s Influence on the Built Environment

November 16, 2008 - November 23, 2008

This exhibition celebrates the tenth anniversary of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, established by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and showcases the Foundation’s timeless and environmentally-conscious work from the last decade.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete

June 19, 2004 - January 29, 2006

Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete explores the critical role concrete plays in the work of some of today’s most innovative architects, who are using the material in remarkably varied ways — in some cases, even to achieve diametrically opposite design goals.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Online Exhibitions

Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete

All Past Exhibitions

View comprehensive lists of all exhibitions since the Museum's opening in 1985, organized according to date and topic.