A team of interior designers and exhibition designers have completed work on the new “innovation” wing of Washington D.C’s Smithsonian National Museum of American History, which will explore invention and creativity across US history when it opens on 1 July.
Featuring a number of famous inventors and entrepreneurs including Thomas Edison, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Apple founder Steve Jobs, the new American Enterprise galleries will feature US inventions, money and hands-on activities and demonstrations.
Following a chronological layout, visitors will first get a glimpse of the country's merchant era during the 1700s and early 1800s, followed by the industrial revolution through to the 1930s. Next is the consumer era, marked by a production boom following the end of World War II and then most recently the global era, documenting innovation since the 1980s. One of the wing’s main attractions is the studio of Ralph Baer, developer of the first home videogame console. American Enterprise also features an interactive gallery asking visitors to make choices in building successful businesses, including the simulation of a farmer’s critical decisions.
Haley Sharpe Design operated as exhibition designers, handling planning, design and production of interpretive and interactive experiences on American Enterprise, working with the Smithsonian since the initial concept in 2008 through to installation. Multimedia company Cortina Productions has handled media and technology displays for American Enterprise, while Design and Production Incorporated was responsible for exhibition fabrication and installation. Renovation and modernisation specialists Grunley handled construction for the space, and EwingCole handled architecture, engineering and interior design on the new wing. Roto was responsible for the Places of Innovation and Object Project exhibits.
The 45,000sq ft (4,180sq m) space is the first development as part of the Smithsonian’s strategy to overhaul its entire west wing. The plans cost US$63m (€55.6m, £39.7m) with construction and development starting in 2012. US$40m (€35.3m, £25.2m) was sourced through private sector donations from the likes of Mars, Intel, Monsanto and the History Channel, while the remainder of funding was secured through US Congress and public donations.
“History museums are not passive places but places that make it essential to understand and grow our country,” said museum director, John Gray. “Here visitors will learn how business has affected the nation’s history as well as their own lives. American Enterprise shows how the US has moved from being a small, dependent nation to being one of the world’s most vibrant and trend-setting economies.”
Construction on the museum’s west wing is set to continue until 2018 with work now shifting towards development of a new section devoted to democracy slated to open in 2017, followed by a section on American culture in 2018.
The Smithsonian Institution is currently seeking US$1.5bn (€1.2bn, £928m) in an organisation-wide fundraising campaign – the largest in history for a cultural body. A ‘quiet’ phase of the campaign has been ongoing since October 2010, with the campaign due to continue through to 2017. So far, the Smithsonian says it has raised two thirds of its target, accruing US$1bn (€781m, £619m) over the past four years through gifts from individuals, foundations, corporations and other donors.
A proposed US$2bn (€1.6bn, £1.3bn) masterplan for Washington D.C’s Smithsonian
has also been unveiled by Bjarke Ingels (BIG), re-imagining the South Mall campus and the area around the Smithsonian’s iconic ‘Castle’. If the plan is approved by the National Capital Planning Commission, it is hoped that work will start in 2016.
