The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has approved a new concept design for the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the U.S. National Arboretum.
Located within the U.S. National Arboretum’s Core, the museum is conceived as an immersive and cohesive garden experience. The design organizes the Museum’s program around a central court that orients the visitor to a network of paths that lead to the four exhibitions, an expanded classroom, and administrative services. The exhibitions are conceived not as buildings, but as gardens, and blur the boundaries with the larger, surrounding garden.
The design also establishes a pervasive grove of understory trees as the principal image and identity of the Museum. Mixed species surround and frame the various exhibitions and the central court. Garden walls organize a path through the display while charred wood posts and trellises rise above the exhibitions to filter light and shape a sense of enclosure.
The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum is the first project in Reed Hilderbrand’s Master Plan Update for the U.S. National Arboretum’s core.
Related Stories
Giants 400 | Oct 3, 2019
2019 Cultural Facility Giants Report: New libraries are all about community
The future of libraries is less about being quiet and more about hands-on learning and face-to-face interactions. This and more cultural sector trends from BD+C's 2019 Giants 300 Report.
Museums | Sep 20, 2019
Kistefos Museum’s new art institution doubles as a bridge to connect two riverbanks
BIG designed the project.
Museums | Aug 21, 2019
Cincinnati Reds debut renovated Reds Hall of Fame and Museum
FRCH NELSON designed the project.
Museums | Aug 8, 2019
The Challenge Museum includes a two minute walk through farmland to reach the building
UNStudio is designing the project.
Museums | Aug 1, 2019
Foster + Partners wins competition for the expansion and remodeling of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum
The design looks to reorient the museums towards the city.
Museums | Jul 29, 2019
A new museum debuts inside the Empire State Building
A $165 million, 10,000-sf museum opened on the second floor of the Empire State Building in New York City, completing the second of a four-phase “reimagining” of that building’s observatory experience, which draws four million visitors annually.
Museums | Jul 22, 2019
Berlin’s Museum Island receives its first new building in almost 100 years
David Chipperfield Architects designed the building.
Museums | Jun 28, 2019
OMA unveils design for New Museum's second gallery building
The building is being designed by Office for Metropolitan Architecture/Shohei Shigematsu in collaboration with Cooper Robertson.
Museums | Jun 18, 2019
Frank Lloyd Wright Trust announces new Visitor and Education Center
Architect John Ronan will design the building.