National Building Museum

As part of its Future Cities Initiative, which reframes city planning, design, and development as a cultural process, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. is convening MacArthur Fellows to explore how cities can better reflect the people who call them home. Fellows invited to participate in a day-long series of panels and dialogues include Reginald Dwayne Betts (2021), Matthew Desmond (2015), Walter Hood (2019), Jennifer Morgan (2024), John Ochsendorf (2008), Kate Orff (2017), Damon Rich (2017), and Camilo José Vergara (2002). Their perspectives as architects, designers, artists, and scholars challenge conventional approaches to urban design, affirming that cities are activated by the human connections that sustain them.
 

The National Building Museum, located in Washington, D.C., aims to deepen the public's understanding of the role of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture and planning and design through exhibitions and educational programming.  
The virtual conversation between MacArthur Fellows Ben Katchor a cartoonist and keen observer of New York City and Camilo José Vergara, photographer and sociologist, focuses on the evolution of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan and features Camilo José Vergara’s photographs of the buildings and the site immediately after the 9/11 attack. Elihu Rubin, Professor of American Studies at Yale University School of Architecture, is the moderator.

The National Building Museum is dedicated to enhancing the quality of the built environment and educating people about its impact on their lives. The Museum, in partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research, will use this grant to host a second national conference for researchers, practitioners and policymakers about the Foundation’s How Housing Matters to Families Communities research initiative. The purpose of the conference is to increase awareness of this growing body of research and its use in improving policy development, innovation, program implementation, and integration across multiple issue areas.

The National Building Museum explores and celebrates the "building arts" and advances the quality of the built environment by educating people about its impact on their lives. This grant supports a five-year exhibit, House & Home, which explores how houses, apartments, and shelters reflect technical innovation, convey cultural meaning, and embody our personal and collective ideals. An accompanying series of educational programs will pursue related themes, including the premier educational symposium, "Designing Homes and Neighborhoods for an Aging Population" on the exhibit’s opening day. The exhibit’s themes support Foundation efforts to expand awareness of how housing affects families, communities, and society.

In support of a conference on How Housing Matters.