Native American Museum

Native American Museum, originally uploaded by scilit.
Facade side view of the newest museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC, called the National Museum of the American Indian. The museum houses the history, artifacts, and art of over 500 tribes of indigenous people of the USA. The five-story, 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m2), curvilinear building is clad in a golden-colored Kasota limestone designed to evoke natural rock formations shaped by wind and water over thousands of years. The museum is set in a 4.25 acres (17,200 m2)-site and is surrounded by simulated wetlands. The museum’s east-facing entrance, its prism window and its 120-foot (37 m) high space for contemporary Native performances are direct results of extensive consultations with Native peoples. In 1991, architect Douglas Cardinal won an international competition to design the museum. The museum’s architectural firms are Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects Ltd. of Seattle and SmithGroup of Washington, D.C.