National Building Museum

Place:	National Building Museum
Location:	401 F Street NW, Washington, DC
Phone:	202.272.2448
Hours:	Monday–Saturday:10:00am–5:00pm Sunday:11:00am–5:00pm
Website:	http://www.nbm.org

The National Building Museum was a natural first museum stop for The Crafty Ones. It's an unsung historic building with beautiful architecture and great exhibits. It's also located in a really accessible location - very close to Gallery Place and Chinatown. We went on a Saturday afternoon and had no trouble finding parking right in front of the building.

Upon entering the building you immediately are possessed by the grandeur. The majority of this building is an atrium that is separated only by massive Corinthian columns.

Currently there are three exhibitions - House of Cars, Cityscapes Revealed, and Washington: Symbol and City. House of Cars is a really cool dissertation on parking garages throughout history (1900 - now) and how parking has been key to the development of cities. Parking is a unique challenge for city planners in that it's something people take for granted, require, and don't want to focus on. So parking structures have to be convenient and inconspicuous. Now we've added the challenge of making parking garages green, too! Cityscapes Revealed was an interesting review of facades used on buildings around the country. Washington: Symbol and City was a close look at the city over the past two hundred years. I learned a lot about the neighborhoods of DC and how they've grown and changed over the years.