#BuildingMuseum About to Open 'Designing for Disaster' Exhibition
The exhibition opens May 11. It will examine how we assess risks from natural hazards and how more disaster-resilient communities can be developed.
The National Building Museum's Designing for Disaster exhibition will open May 11. It is located in Washington, D.C., near the National Mall, and through this exhibition will examine how we assess risks from natural hazards and how more disaster-resilient communities can be developed. The exhibition has been designed with two primary questions in mind: Where should we build? How should we build?
It will explore new solutions for, and historical responses to, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, storm surge, flooding, sea level rise, tsunamis, and wildfires. "Because of the importance of housing the exhibition will feature exemplary disaster-resistant residential design. In addition, the exhibition will also highlight a variety of other building or facilities: hospitals, schools, airports, public arenas/stadiums, fire/police stations, public transportation networks/systems, commercial buildings, and retail outlets. The selected structures will be geographically dispersed throughout the country and will have been designed to address at least one hazard in an exemplary way," according to the description posted on the museum's website.
The Home Depot Foundation, Lafarge, the American Red Cross, Andersen Windows & Doors, and the Nature Conservancy are sponsors of the exhibition, and there are many companies and organizations supporting it, including the National Fire Protection Association, FEMA, ASSA ABLOY, United Technologies Corporation, the Association of State Floodplain Managers and the Association of State Floodplain Managers Foundation, RenaissanceRe Risk Sciences Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and URS Corporation.
The exhibition also has its own blog.