New Smithsonian Museum to Feature Masonry Inside and Out

Drawing from a wide variety of Native American tribal influences, the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) under construction in Washington, D.C. successfully integrates diverse architectural perspectives. In fact, tribal leaders, contemporary artists, researchers, curators, and historians from the United States, Canada, and Latin America have all had direct input into the project’s design, working with concept designer Douglas Cardinal and Smith Group Architects. This inclusive process has resulted in a design that is visually unlike any other museum on the National Mall.

Scheduled to open in September 2004, the National Museum of the American Indian will feature an extraordinary Kasota stone exterior.	Local 1 MD/VA/DC member Jesse Jones lays block on one of the building’s exterior block radius walls.

This large-scale mock-up demonstrates how varying sizes of stone will combine to form a natural-looking exterior.

Set in a landscape representative of hardwood forests, wetlands, and meadows, NMAI’s exterior will make use of Minnesota Kasota stone, a buff-colored dolomitic limestone reminiscent of natural rock sculpted by wind and water. Curvilinear forms keep lines smooth and subdued to compliment the museums natural surroundings. This past summer BAC members began work on the back-up block walls and partitions of the museum structures that will support its natural limestone cladding.

Local 1 apprentice bricklayer Donald Coleman, left, and Local 1 Field Representative Kevin Long.

A total of 17 Local 1 Maryland/Virginia/District of Columbia bricklayers working for BAC signatory contractor, GA Masonry, will spend an estimated 65 weeks laying 200,000 block, and installing insulation and Fero ties for the building’s stone skin. One critical component of construction at NMAI is the application of Blueskin, a rubber membrane that will provide the tight vapor barrier needed to regulate the museum’s interior climate and protect museum collections. Work will continue into 2003 and 2004, when BAC crews will finish setting the exterior façade, paving, flooring, water features, and countertops with a variety of granite.

The Journal will be back on the job this winter, documenting the progress being made by BAC members at NMAI.