I have a tendency, when visiting a museum, to spend a lot of time with the first few of those carefully hand-lettered descriptions of the artist’s or architect’s life, where the crowd tends to gather. I know that some people slip around those crowds, ignoring the gentle babble of audioguides, and walk in to enjoy the visual presentation itself. But I figure that some curator has spent a lot of time on these signs, and I always go into an exhibition wanting to take away every last morsel of knowledge. And then my feet start to hurt. And then my brain starts to hurt. And I realize that if I really want to know everything about Mies van der Rohe or Monet or King Tut, then I’m just going to have to buy the catalog.
It is to the National Building Museum’s credit that when you reach the end of its new interactive exhibit (if you can ever truly reach the end of an online, non-linear exhibit), Building America www.nbm.org, you’re not dumped into the gift shop. But even sitting in a comfortable desk chair, I started to get that same feeling of malaise and ambivalence that comes over me as I rush ahead to the last room of an exhibit to sit down wait for my friends. Building America is, in a way, the Building Museum’s permanent collection, on the web. It’s an effort—a laudable and substantially accomplished effort—to put the history of American construction out in cyberspace, where the general public can get a better idea of its environment. To undertake the effort, the NBM brought on the venerable exhibition designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates, who coordinated with the NBM’s curatorial staff.
You have 0 complimentary articles remaining.
Unlimited access + premium benefits for as low as $1.99/month.