The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., will be moving next year. If you want the new location of the museum you'll have to travel to a park in Partridge, Kan., where a package awaits you in a hollowed-out tree.
Just kidding! The museum says that it will relocate to a different spot in D.C., at L’Enfant Plaza between the National Mall and the Southwest Waterfront’s Wharf.
Construction has begun on the new 140,000-sf building. Designed by Washington, D.C.’s Hickok Cole Architects and London’s Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the museum will have a glass veil wall in front of an enclosed black-box exhibition space, a setup that contributes to the museum’s “hiding in plain sight” theme.
The glass allows people to see activity inside and outside the museum, which the museum says will add energy to the L'Enfant Plaza. Considered a masterpiece when it opened, the plaza, which sits between a handful of commercial buildings with a shopping mall underneath, has been involved in renovation and demolition plans for years.
The building will have a theater and event spaces, and it will have more exhibition and educational spaces than its current location a few blocks north of the National Mall.
Opened in 2002, the International Spy Museum (SPY) contains exhibits that detail how spies recruit and train, make and break codes, and create false identities. Galleries of artifacts, photos, and videos show the history of espionage from Biblical times through the Cold War to today. The most popular special exhibit is Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years of Bond Villains, where visitors learn about the bad guys in the James Bond film series and how the franchise’s plots have adapted to changes in real-life spying.
The new museum will open in 2018 (Curbed Washington reports that the current museum’s lease doesn’t expire until the end of next year). The project’s developers are The Malrite Company and JBG Companies.
Related Stories
Museums | Dec 7, 2021
The Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo completes
CAW Architects designed the project.
Giants 400 | Nov 19, 2021
2021 Cultural Facilities Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. cultural facilities sector
Gensler, AECOM, Buro Happold, and Arup top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest cultural facilities sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Museums | Nov 10, 2021
Tampa Museum of Art announces $65 million expansion
Weiss/Manfredi is designing the expansion and the renovation of the existing museum building.
Museums | Oct 29, 2021
Rowan University’s new fossil museum sits within an active dinosaur fossil dig
Ennead Architects (Design Architect) together with KSS Architects (Architect of Record) are designing the project.
Museums | Oct 15, 2021
Kunsthaus Zürich extension opens to the public
David Chipperfield Architects Berlin designed the project.
Museums | Sep 27, 2021
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures set to open on Sept. 30 in Los Angeles
Renzo Piano Building Workshop designed the project.
Art Galleries | Sep 16, 2021
Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture to open in Hong Kong
The museum will open on Nov. 12.
Museums | Aug 31, 2021
The Making of Harry Potter tour set to open on former Toshimaen amusement park grounds
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo will operate the facility.
Giants 400 | Aug 30, 2021
2021 Giants 400 Report: Ranking the largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S.
The 2021 Giants 400 Report includes more than 130 rankings across 25 building sectors and specialty categories.
Museums | Aug 27, 2021
DLR Group to design new facility for Jacksonville’s Museum of Science & History
The museum has outgrown its location on the Southbank of Downtown Jacksonville.