International Spy Museum

International Spy Museum

Application: Interiors

Building Type: Civic Museum

From Clark Construction, “The eight-story museum features three floors of exhibit space, an interactive theater, a gift shop, and educational, office, and event spaces. To construct the 140,000-square-foot steel structure, Clark’s team retrofitted L’Enfant Plaza –an existing, active parking garage and retail center located in one of the busiest public transportation thoroughfares in the nation’s capital.

The museum’s sweeping exhibition space is contained in a dramatic, pleated ‘black box’ with opaque diagonal walls, articulated by bright red fins. The ‘black box’ of angled metal panels comes together to form a triangular profile, enclosing the museum’s exhibit floors. These custom louvered panels are perforated to allow for light to pass through, enabling the building to “glow.” Dark space created by the black box is an homage to the museums’ contents and the history of surveillance and covert operations.

The museum’s façade is comprised of a glass veil system that encloses an atrium, ground floor lobby, and circulation space. The custom veil system is a three-story, folded-plate-steel-glass 238,339 pound structure that is suspended from the west façade of the museum. The veils’ panels are “stitched” together with bolts and silicone, eliminating the need for vertical framing. Behind this veil, the prominent façade of the box angles out over the street and public space to one side, breaking the building line to create a disruptive landmark at the crest of 10th Street, visible from the National Mall.”

PPSI worked with Hickok Cole and design architect, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners to develop custom terrazzo mixes for the interior of the space. Ultimately, the team decided on a white terrazzo mix with accents of recycled red stained glass to tie into the museum’s exterior red fins and other red elements in the design and museum’s branding. The new International Spy Museum has over 600,000 visitors a year, and a poured in place, seamless terrazzo floor easily handles the heavy traffic in this space. A beautiful execuition of poured in place terrazzo by David Allen Company.