27 Apr 2023
Bjarke Ingels among finalists chosen in design competition for National Museum of the United States Navy
BY Tom Walker
Five prominent architectural practices have revealed their designs for the planned new National Museum of the United States Navy.
The five teams – Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Gehry Partners, DLR Group, Perkins&Will, and Quinn Evans – were finalists in an “artistic ideas competition” held by the US Navy and its historical and curatorial arm, the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC).
The quintet was chosen from 37 teams that submitted entries to the design competition, launched in December 2022.
The competition was set up to discover a range of alternative opportunities for a new flagship museum and ceremonial courtyard for the navy.
To view the five different designs, click here.
The planned museum campus will consist of approximately 270,000sq ft and include about 100,000sq ft of net gallery space.
The new museum will replace the current museum, which dates to 1962 and sits on the grounds of the Washington Navy Yard in Washington DC.
It is likely that the location of the new museum will change from its current site. For this reason, the competition's brief was described as “site-agnostic”.
Secretary of the US Navy, Carlos Del Toro, said the concepts were a crucial step in exploring what is possible for the new attraction.
"We are pleased to display five visions for the future of the National Museum of the U.S. Navy," Del Toro said.
“While each concept is different, all of them show how we might celebrate our Navy’s accomplishments, honor our veterans and point the way toward the Navy’s future.”
The project is driven by NHHC, which is responsible for preserving and disseminating US naval history and heritage.
The organisation runs the Navy Department Library, the Navy Operational Archives, the Navy art and artifact collections,10 museums, the USS Constitution repair facility and the historic ship Nautilus.
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