Exhibition Fact Sheet from the National Building Museum

House of Cars: Fact Sheet

Exhibition

House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage

When

October 17, 2009 through July 11, 2010

Where

National Building Museum, first-floor galleries

Overview

House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage is the first major exhibition to explore this familiar structure and open conversations about parking’s role in our society and innovative parking solutions for the future.

Featuring artifacts such as a 1927 Ford Model A, sculptures and other works of art, architectural models, multimedia from popular movies and television shows, and historic photographs, House of Cars explores how the built environment has evolved to accommodate the automobile. The exhibition also highlights innovative parking solutions from the past century including images of the first underground garages, a touchable model of a ramp system, and parking garage designs by famous architects including Santiago Calatrava and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Exhibition Layout

House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage is divided into six galleries.

Early Car Culture examines the birth of the parking garage in the early 20th century. How Does it Work? focuses on the engineering elements of parking garages including the ramp system, automated hoist systems, and underground garages. The Mid-Century Garage examines the parking garage building boom in the 1950s. How Does it Look? features innovative parking garage designs including reproductions of drawings from architects such as Paul Rudolph and Eero Saarinen. The Future of Parking looks at how garages are being incorporated into sustainable city plans and features photographs of “green garages.” An auxiliary gallery in the exhibition Art and the Public Imagination looks at how the parking garage has inspired popular culture from fine art to film. 

Curators

Sarah Leavitt, curator
Deborah Sorensen, assistant curator
Stephanie Anderson, curatorial assistant 

Sponsors

The presenting sponsor of House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage is the National Parking Association. Additional support is provided by The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Colonial Parking, Inc.; Carl Walker, Inc.; Harwood Properties; Impark; Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, with International Parking Design; Tech Painting; and WPS North America. McGraw-Hill Construction is the official media partner.
 

The National Building Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to exploring and celebrating architecture, design, engineering, construction, and planning. Chartered by Congress in 1980 and open to the public since 1985, the Museum has become a vital forum for exchanging ideas and information about the built environment through its exhibitions, education programs, and publications. The Museum is located at 401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is free. Museum Shop. Café. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448 or visit www.nbm.org.