Although the Museum’s doors are closed for now, we are producing smart, timely, and thought-provoking programs that can be experienced online. A number of these include opportunities to earn continuing education credits. Click on the tabs below to find out what we’re working on and what is available for viewing.
Spotlight on Design is generously supported by the Revada Foundation of the Logan Family.
Spotlight on Design lectures feature many of the world’s premier voices in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and design. Browse highlights from previous years on our YouTube channel, and enjoy other video and audio recordings on this page.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
ODA — NOVEMBER 10, 2020, 6:30–8:00 P.M.
$5 Museum Member | Free Student | $10 Non-member
1.5 LU HSW (AIA)
Hear from Eran Chen, founding principal of New York–based ODA, on the firm’s exploration into new fractal forms in architecture and its impact on the future of cities and society. Chen will discuss the evolution of his practice, including projects such as Washington D.C.’s West Half and The Wharf; 10 Jay Street, in New York City (shown); and a new master plan for the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York. This program includes optional closed captioning access. Image: Courtesy Pavel Bendov.
PREVIOUS PROGRAMS
FXCOLLABORATIVE — OCTOBER 20, 2020
The recording of this program will be available soon.
Learn about the Hybrid, a new breed of co-development where not-for-profit and for-profit clients cohabitate, integrating two or more divergent uses such as an untraditional mix of schools, sacred spaces, residential, retail, and office, into a single, purpose-built building. Hear about the opportunities and challenges inherent to these projects, with a focus on design and construction implications, as well as their potential impacts on institutions, communities, social justice, and the urban fabric. Dan Kaplan, FAIA, senior partner with New York City–based FXCollaborative, and Miriam Harris, executive vice president of Trinity Place Holdings, developer of the FXCollaborative-designed 77 Greenwich (shown here), explore how the Hybrid may allow for the creation of more equitable cities through development opportunities and partnerships between seemingly divergent client types.
MASS Design Group — August 19, 2020
This program celebrates a decade of mission-driven, humanitarian work by the nonprofit, Boston-based architecture studio MASS Design Group. Michael Murphy, a founding partner, shows how the firm’s mission—to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and healing—is demonstrated in hospitals, schools, and memorials. The program is moderated by Susan Piedmont-Palladino, curator of the exhibition Justice is Beauty: The Work of MASS Design Group, which will be available for viewing when the Museum opens to the public. Purchase the firm’s first monograph, Justice is Beauty: Mass Design Group, at the Museum Shop.
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library — June 24, 2020
This program focuses on the major transformation completed in spring 2020 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C.’s central library, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened in 1972. Learn about the significant design decisions that were made to update the building to meet 21st century needs, and the challenges of renovating a historic Modernist structure.
Additional funding for this program was provided by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Racial and social equity issues are inherent to the built world. The ways we choose to design our buildings, landscapes, interiors, and streets are either the cause or the cure of these disparities. In this new National Building Museum series, learn from architects, landscape architects, planners, interior designers, and other design and design-adjacent professionals as we reflect on current events and the history that brought us here; listen to stimulating conversations; and consider concrete actions that these professions and others are taking to promote justice in the built environment.
The Museum’s efforts to present programs and exhibitions that are fully inclusive have been evolving, especially over the past few years. This series will be a part of our ongoing commitment to ensure that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) professionals will have a place and a voice in the conversations we host.
PREVIOUS PROGRAMS
MARDI GRAS INDIAN CULTURAL CAMPUS—OCTOBER 14, 2020
This video will be available soon.
Learn how the Mardi Gras Indian Cultural Campus is helping to reverse the negative impacts of economic disinvestment, political neglect, and natural disasters that have eroded community pride and participation in New Orleans’ Central City, a once-thriving hub of African American civic and commercial life. Austin Allen, Ph.D., ASLA, associate professor of practice in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas Arlington; Chief Tyrone Casby, now retired, former Principal of Landry High School in New Orleans, Louisiana; and Matt A. Williams, ASLA, urban planner, City of Detroit, discuss their roles in establishing this culturally significant site. The program is moderated by Ujijji Davis Williams, ASLA, a landscape architect, urban planner, and associate with SmithGroup. Allen, Davis Williams, and Williams are members of the Black Landscape Architect’s Network (BlackLAN), whose mission is to increase the visibility, support the interests, and foster the impact of Black practitioners in landscape architecture. Click here to see images of the campus and one of the buildings. All photos courtesy Matt A. Williams.
An occasional series in which the Museum highlights recently published works whose subject matter touches on some aspect of the built environment.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
The Great Indoors / Emily Anthes
OCTOBER 26, 2020, 6:30–8:00 P.M.
$5 Museum Member | Free Student | $10 Non-member
1.5 LU HSW (AIA)
Learn how our built world, and the buildings in which we spend 90% of our time, affects our mental and physical well-being, our productivity, and our behavior. In her new book, The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), science journalist Emily Anthes explores the pain-killing power of a well-placed window, how room temperature regulates our cognitive performance, and whether a well-designed prison can help support inmates’ psychological needs. This program includes optional closed captioning access.
This program is supported by the Apgar Fund for Excellence in the Built Environment.
