The National Building Museum has named Aileen Fuchs its new executive director. In her new role, Fuchs will oversee the reopening and evolution of the museum, which has been closed since December 2019 for construction work and then due to the pandemic.
Prior to this job, Fuchs served as president and CEO of Staten Island’s Snug Harbor Cultural Center and executive director of exhibits and programs for Brooklyn Navy Yard.
While the Building Museum’s exhibits generally focus on innovation and expression in architecture and design, in recent years the cavernous space—which was built in the 19th century to house the US Pension Bureau—has hosted crowd-pleasing immersive experiences like Lawn, which turned the building’s great hall into a massive grassy space complete with hammocks.
The museum’s spring reopening will feature a number of new exhibits that reflect on our present moment. A press release promises “a showcase of MASS Design Group, an industry-leading nonprofit architectural firm focused on public health, personal well-being, and social justice; the DC debut of the Gun Violence Memorial Project, an architectural space of remembrance and healing; the work of master architectural photographer Alan Karchmer; and a new Visitor Center that will help visitors understand the Museum’s mission and scope.”
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
