Newseum announces selection of architect, museum designer for major expansion, relocation to Pennsylvania Ave.

Polshek Partnership Architects, Ralph Appelbaum Associates to design signature building in Washington, D.C.

09.21.00

Printer-friendly page

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Freedom Forum announced today the selection of two internationally acclaimed firms to design the new Newseum and Freedom Forum offices at Pennsylvania Avenue and 6th Street, N.W., in Washington. James Stewart Polshek and Richard Olcott of Polshek Partnership Architects and Ralph Appelbaum of Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) will lead the design efforts for a new state-of-the-art facility for the Newseum's major expansion and relocation.

Polshek Partnership and RAA are well known for their work both as individual firms and as a team. Their most recent collaborations include the critically acclaimed Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the forthcoming William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark.

The expansion and relocation from Arlington to one of the most prominent sites in Washington will bring the unique experience of the Newseum to the heart of downtown, reinforcing the news museum's position as a vital international cultural and educational resource. The project is expected to be completed in late 2004 to mid-2005.

"We could not have found a better place for a news museum devoted to a free press and the fundamental values of the First Amendment than right between the White House and the U.S. Capitol. And we could not have found a better team to design what will surely be a major landmark on Pennsylvania Avenue," said Charles L. Overby, chairman and chief executive officer of The Freedom Forum. "It is a great privilege to work with Jim Polshek, Richard Olcott and Ralph Appelbaum. With their vision, we will create a compelling D.C. destination, bringing all the Newseum has to offer to millions more."

The Newseum will be located in an accessible multiuse development that will include the headquarters of The Freedom Forum, its international conference center and approximately 100 condominiums. The complex will unite cultural and residential life in the District of Columbia and will provide an important bridge between the neighborhoods of downtown and the national mall. The new development will replace the current building on the site housing the Department of Employment Services, which the city plans to relocate.

The proposed complex will contain approximately 476,000 square feet. About 300,000 square feet will house the Newseum, including exhibition and gallery spaces, theaters, broadcast facilities, an education center and administrative offices, along with The Freedom Forum's

headquarters and international conference center. Retail and restaurant operations will be located in 30,000 square feet of the development, and an additional 146,000 square feet will be devoted to new downtown condominium housing units.

Although the design of the building has not yet begun, it is projected that the Newseum's public spaces will be at least double the size of the current 72,000-square-foot museum in Arlington, which will allow more space for exhibitions, educational activities and programs and will accommodate the Newseum's growing audience. The total project, including the cost of purchasing the land ($100 million) and building the Newseum and condominiums, is expected to cost approximately $250 million.

"Ralph Appelbaum, Richard Olcott and I are honored to have been selected for this important project, and we are pleased to be working together again," said Polshek, design principal of Polshek Partnership. "We look forward to meeting the unique challenges of designing a state-of-the-art museum that reflects the immediacy and constantly changing nature of the news and that shapes the architectural landscape of Pennsylvania Avenue and the District of Columbia in the 21st century."

Among the recent major cultural projects of Polshek Partnership are the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.; the renovation and expansion of Carnegie Hall, Scandinavia House and the renovation of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York; the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Mashantucket, Conn.; the Santa Fe Opera in Santa Fe, N.M.; and the renovations of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institution Arts and Industries Building in Washington, D.C.

Polshek Partnership has received numerous national, state and local awards for design excellence, including the American Institute of Architects' highest honor, the Architecture Firm Award, received in 1992. Other awards include seven AIA National Honor Awards for Design Excellence for such projects as the Center for the Arts Theater at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco; the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio; and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.

"The Newseum is about communicating the present and preserving the past to affect the future," said Appelbaum, president of RAA. "It is meant to be a transforming experience, and with this major redesign and relocation project, the Newseum can enhance and expand its capabilities for interactive exhibitions and programming and take its one-of-a-kind experience to a whole new level."

RAA, best known for the firm's work on large-scale, permanent museum projects, has won numerous awards, including the Presidential Award for Design Excellence and the Federal Design Achievement Award. RAA' s extensive experience includes the acclaimed exhibition environments for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; the renovated dinosaur halls at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; the new Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y.; and both the Newseum and The Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial in Arlington, Va.

The Newseum, which opened in April 1997, takes visitors behind the scenes to see and experience how and why news is made. Visitors can be reporters or television newscasters; relive the great news stories of all time through multimedia exhibits, artifacts and news memorabilia; and see today's news as it happens on a block-long video news wall. Each morning the Newseum mounts a display of the day's front pages from newspapers in all 50 states and various foreign countries. Since opening, the Newseum has welcomed more than 1.5 million visitors.

The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan, international foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on four main priorities: the Newseum, First Amendment issues, newsroom diversity and world press freedom. The Freedom Forum funds two independent affiliates — the Newseum and the First Amendment Center, with offices at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and in New York City and Arlington. Other operating offices are in San Francisco, Cocoa Beach, Fla., Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and London.

To arrange an interview or to request images, biographical or other background information, call or email Beth Tuttle at 703/284-3722, btuttle@freedomforum.org or Jennifer Essen at 212/593-5881, essenj@ruderfinn.com.