Last summer, the National Building Museum brought “the Beach” to DC. The playful, charming, and Instagram-dominating exhibit was always going to be tough to beat.
So this year, instead of recreating summer classics with miniature golf or a ball-pit sea, the museum is giving us ICEBERGS.
James Corner Field Operations—the firm behind New York’s High Line and Santa Monica, California’s Tongva Park—will fill the museum’s Great Hall with massive bergs made from reusable building materials like scaffolding and polycarbonate paneling. The tallest will soar 56 feet high, as far high as the building’s third-story balcony.
Just as visitors were encouraged to swim in last year’s bubble ocean, this exhibit is also all about immersion. The space will be divided by a water line. From the ground floor, visitors will experience the icebergs as if they were below sea level. There will even be ice chairs for lounging. From a viewing platform in that 56-foot installation, visitors will look down at the icebergs and the visitors wading among them.
Other features will include an undersea bridge, caves and grottoes on the “ocean floor,” and, of course, shaved-ice snacks.
It also provides an excuse to revive this classic from modern cinema: Smell ice, can ya?
Amanda has contributed to Washingtonian since 2016. She has written about the right-wing media personality Britt McHenry, chronicled her night with Stormy Daniels, and come clean about owning too much stuff. She lives on H Street. She can be reached at [email protected].
