The National Museum of the United States Army (NMUSA), a cultural institution that is the first to tell the story of the oldest branch of the United States military, recently completed and opened on Veterans Day.
Located 20 miles outside of Washington, D.C., the facility is designed to serve as a center of education, and the symbolic front door of the Army. The museum focuses on the individual soldier, not battles or wars, to tell a centuries-long narrative of honor, sacrifice, and valor.
The LEED Silver-certified museum spans 84 acres across the Fort Belvoir Military Installation in Virginia and comprises a series of pavilions for exhibits and special events. The building leverages the site’s natural topography and rests atop a plateau to evoke a sense of monumentality. SOM’s design and planning for the future of the site includes a quiet memorial garden, a parade field and grandstand, and an Army Trail with interpretive stations.
Symbolism is at the core of the museum’s design. The symbolic experience begins with the access road, which offers a glimpse of the stainless steel-clad museum through the tress and across a long meadow. The museum rises to 100 feet at its peak, and its facade is composed of a regular grid of laser-cut stainless steel panels that establish a sense of rigor and discipline that are central to the design. At the corner of each pavilion, recessed glass panels alternate with painted aluminum fins to add a sense of dynamism. The complex lies on a three-foot grid system with every joint and edge of the building falling on each subdivision with precision, meaning the aluminum fins are spaced 18 inches apart to fall exactly on the edges of the panels.
Inside, the symbolism continues with stainless steel pylons sharing individual soldier stories and leading visitors from the promenade, through the vestibule, and into the exhibition hall. The grand lobby, which can be used as an event space, includes the Department of the Army’s emblem inscribed on the terrazzo floor and a black granite wall that lists every campaign from the Army’s history. Above, a coffered ceiling with 22 rows of translucent, laminated glass panels match the colors of the campaign streamers from the Army’s past.
See Also: First rendering of the National Medal of Honor Museum unveiled
Retail, a cafe, the first of three landscaped terraces, and exhibition spaces including a 300-degree theater surround the lobby. A monumental staircase leads visitors to additional exhibition spaces on the second floor.
Glass and wood thresholds connect each pavilion to signify transitions between spaces and provide views outside. On the third floor a wood-clad Veterans’ Hall serves as an event space supplementing the lobby. The Veterans’ Hall connects to the Medal of Honor Garden. Here, a 10-foot-tall black granite wall is engraved with the names of every medal recipient.
Sustainable features include increased insulation, improved glazing, high-efficiency LED lighting, automatic daylighting controls and occupancy sensors, and a green roof.
Related Stories
| Mar 29, 2012
Construction completed on Las Vegas’ newest performing arts center
The Smith Center will be the first major multi-purpose performance center in the U.S. to earn Silver LEED certification.
| Mar 5, 2012
Franklin Institute in Philadelphia selects Skanska to construct new pavilion
The building has been designed by SaylorGregg Architects and will apply for LEED Silver certification.
| Dec 5, 2011
Summit Design+Build begins renovation of Chicago’s Esquire Theatre
The 33,000 square foot building will undergo an extensive structural remodel and core & shell build-out changing the building’s use from a movie theater to a high-end retail center.
| Nov 9, 2011
Lincoln Center Pavilion wins national architecture and engineering award
The project team members include owner Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York; design architect and interior designer of the restaurant, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York; executive architect, FXFOWLE, New York; and architect and interior designer of the film center, Rockwell Group, New York; structural engineer Arup (AISC Member), New York; and general contractor Turner Construction Company (AISC Member), New York.
| Oct 12, 2011
BIM Clarification and Codification in a Louisiana Sports Museum
The Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame celebrates the sporting past, but it took innovative 3D planning and coordination of the future to deliver its contemporary design.
| Oct 12, 2011
Consigli Construction breaks ground for Bigelow Laboratory Center for Ocean Health
Consigli to build third phase of 64-acre Ocean Science and Education Campus, design by WBRC Architects , engineers in association with Perkins + Will
| Sep 12, 2011
Living Buildings: Are AEC Firms up to the Challenge?
Modular Architecture > You’ve done a LEED Gold or two, maybe even a LEED Platinum. But are you and your firm ready to take on the Living Building Challenge? Think twice before you say yes.
| Apr 13, 2011
Expanded Museum of the Moving Image provides a treat for the eyes
The expansion and renovation of the Museum of the Moving Image in the Astoria section of Queens, N.Y., involved a complete redesign of its first floor and the construction of a three-story 47,000-sf addition.
| Apr 12, 2011
Entrance pavilion adds subtle style to Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
A $13 million gift from the Otis Booth Foundation is funding a new entrance pavilion at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. CO Architects, Los Angeles, is designing the frameless structure with an energy-efficient curtain wall, vertical suspension rods, and horizontal knife plates to make it as transparent as possible.
| Jan 21, 2011
Sustainable history center exhibits Fort Ticonderoga’s storied past
Fort Ticonderoga, in Ticonderoga, N.Y., along Lake Champlain, dates to 1755 and was the site of battles in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The new $20.8 million, 15,000-sf Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center pays homage to the French magasin du Roi (the King’s warehouse) at the fort.