National Building Museum Focuses On Open Spaces

The Memorial Bridge in Rijeka, Croatia was created by the architecture firm 3LHD, one of the designers featured in the National Building Museum show in Washington, D.C. Photo: Aljosa Brajdic, Damir Fabiujanic, 3LHD.

An exhibit now at the National Building Museum explores contemporary and future directions in the design of public space, highlighting the idea that open spaces can be the generators of urban revitalization. OPEN: New Designs For Public Space, an exhibition originated by the Van Alen Institute of New York, will present innovative recent projects from around the world, all of which address aspects of the public realm. The exhibition will also explore the role of public space in an age of heightened security and increased electronic interaction. The exhibition will be in second-floor galleries, and will be on view through May 15, 2005.

The contemporary spaces represented in this exhibition include architecture, landscape, and urban design projects by renowned design leaders including Will Alsop, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, Craig Dykers, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Walter Hood, Norman Foster, and Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi. More than 300 images, digital animations and videos, and models (many commissioned for this exhibition) illustrate a range of projects in a variety of settings: from memorials to new types of urban plazas and parks, and from Macon, Georgia, to Melbourne, Australia, to Johannesburg, South Africa.

The projects in OPEN will be organized into five themes. The Plaza Unbound, Information in Place, Opening the City, Active Memory, and New Meeting Grounds will explain how public space is evolving according to the specific needs of today's cities across the United States and around the world. One additional section, In the News, will focus on ?EUR??,,????'??Parks to Watch?EUR??,,????'?? in New York City, ?EUR??,,????'??North American Competitions,?EUR??,,????'?? and ?EUR??,,????'??Temporary Interventions in Public Space.?EUR??,,????'??

At the National Building Museum, OPEN is made possible by the American Planning Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects, EDAW, Inc., and ULI-the Urban Land Institute.