Freedom Forum receives property for new Newseum
By freedomforum.org staff
06.22.01
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| D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, left, hands boxed key to Freedom Forum Chairman Charles Overby. |
WASHINGTON — The Freedom Forum last night took possession of the prime property on Pennsylvania Avenue in the District of Columbia where it will build an expanded Newseum and a new headquarters between the U.S. Capitol and the White House.
Mayor Anthony A. Williams presented Freedom Forum Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Charles L. Overby a ceremonial key to the 40-year-old, six-story D.C. office building that will be razed to make way for the new structure. In a deal that closed late last year, The Freedom Forum paid the city $100 million for the property, which The Washington Post recently described as "the last developable site on Pennsylvania Avenue's presidential inauguration route."
Scheduled to open in 2005, the new Newseum will be more than twice as large as the original one that has attracted more than 2 million visitors since opening in April 1997 across the Potomac River in Arlington, Va. The new multiuse development also will include residential and retail components.
Williams called the Newseum "a critical link" that he hopes will motivate many of the 25 million annual visitors to the "monuments to democracy" on the National Mall to cross Pennsylvania Avenue and experience downtown Washington "as a real living, breathing example of democracy."
The mayor described his vision of a vibrant downtown "known as much for its entertainment and cultural attractions as for its office buildings." The partnership with The Freedom Forum, he said, "is one of the many steps we're taking to make this vision a reality."
Overby said, "We expect our design to be a modern monument … that complements all the monuments" of the nation's capital. "It will respect both the heritage of Pennsylvania Avenue and the new century."
He added, "We are assembling a first-rate team to build this project," including Polshek Partnership Architects, museum design firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates, project manager CarrAmerica Urban Development, and a large contingent of Freedom Forum and Newseum staff.
The key-handover ceremony took place during a dinner in the Canadian Embassy, next door to The Freedom Forum's new property.
"Welcome, neighbor," said Canadian Ambassador Michael Kergin. The Newseum "will add a most important new dynamic" to what is already an "active and growing" inner core of the city, he said.