Events & Online Programming

We are producing smart, timely, and thought-provoking presentations and panel discussions that can be enjoyed online: first live, via webinar, and then after, as recorded videos. Select live programs will offer the opportunity to earn continuing education credits; at this time, recorded programs are not eligible for such credits. Use this page to find out what we’re planning and what is available for viewing.

Discover the Museum’s signature program series: Equity in the Built Environment, and Spotlight on Design and our two annual awards, the Scully Prize and the Honor Award.

Previous Programs

  • Spotlight on Design: Ronald Rael Friday, June 16, 2023 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM $10 Museum Member | Free Student | $15 Non-member
    • Spotlight on Design

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    Ronald Rael is a design activist, author, and thought leader of additive manufacturing, borderwall studies, and earthen architecture. His research connects indigenous and traditional material practices to contemporary technologies and issues. With partner Virginia San Fratello, Rael’s audacious and imaginative studio Rael San Fratello explores the frontiers of technology, material, and tradition, pushing the boundaries of sustainable and ecological construction.

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  • Film Screening: Landscapes of Exclusion Monday, May 22, 2023, 6 - 8:30 PM Free Admission
    • Equity in the Built Environment

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    Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South 

    Based on the award-winning book by William E. O’Brien, the film underscores the profound inequality that persisted for decades in the number, size, and quality of state park spaces provided for Black visitors across the South. Even though it has largely faded from public awareness, the imprint of segregated design remains visible in many state parks. Emphasizing the events leading to integration in the 1960s, this film features commentary by author William E. O’Brien and the architect Arthur J. Clement, who attended a segregated state park as a child. Dramatic images and live footage bring this painful history into contemporary focus.

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  • Spotlight on Design: Neri&Hu May 22, 2023 $10 Museum Member | Free Student | $15 Non-member
    • Spotlight on Design

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    How does design embody collective longing, constructing and revealing relationships between places, cultural history, and public memory?

    Neri&Hu’s interdisciplinary design practice exemplifies architecture’s potential for cultural preservation and poetic place-making. Founded in Shanghai in 2004 by partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, their research-based projects range from master planning and architecture to interior and product design, capturing the collective imagination amidst rapid development and disappearing cultural contexts.

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  • The Wall/El Muro Dance and Discussion Saturday, April 22, 2023, 5-7:30 PM $10 Museum Member | Free Student | $15 Non-member
    • Equity in the Built Environment
    • Upcoming Programs

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    What does a border delineate, and how does it exist beyond a physical wall? Where does the permeability of the US-Mexico border begin and end, and how does it affect people throughout the country? While the border might be far away, the policies reverberate all the way to the nation’s capital.

    In support of our exhibition The Wall/El Muro: What is a Border Wall?, the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company performance entitled ‘El Muro’ (“The Wall” in Spanish) confronts the topic of immigration along the southern border. The dance will be followed by a presentation by the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition, examining the challenges immigrants face inside and outside detention centers dispersed across the US, including in the DC area.

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  • Centering Equity in Transportation Thursday, March 9, 2023, 6 - 7:30 PM Free Admission
    • Equity in the Built Environment
    • Upcoming Programs

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    What does equity in transportation mean? How do we quantify our target, or measure our progress? What will it take to shift thinking from “we need to build a new metro line” to “we need to find a way to connect more people to job opportunities?” From “we need to upgrade that road” to “we need to provide fast and safe connections between and within communities”? Successes are often catalyzed by local community activism or targeted investments like the recently launched federal Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program and Justice 40 Initiative. But to undo the harms done to historically marginalized communities, we need equity to be at the root of every transportation project, driving goals and decisions from policy to strategy, scoping to design, and delivery to unveiling.

    Join Arup’s Global Transportation Leader Isabel Dedring for an exploration of the inherent challenges to transformation in the transportation industry, followed by an in-depth discussion with local transportation industry and community representatives about equity challenges and opportunities in the wider DC area.

    In collaboration with the National Building Museum, Arup is pleased to present this event free of charge for attendees. If you are able, please consider a donation to support the museum’s continued work to raise awareness of the key challenges and opportunities that are shaping the future of the built environment.

    This program continues the National Building Museum’s Equity in the Built Environment series of conversations that focus on how buildings, landscapes, interiors, and streets can be the cause of—and, more important, the cure for—social and racial disparities.

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  • BlackSpace...at the Intersection of Diversity, Agency, and Design February 25, 2023, 2-5 pm $20 Museum Member | $5 Student | $35 Non-member
    • Equity in the Built Environment
    • Upcoming Programs

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    On February 25, BlackSpace Urbanist Collective for a fast-paced, hands-on and interactive design charette where participants reconceptualize the built environment using principles of inclusive and culturally affirming design​. Charette expands thinking about the possibilities for affirming Black cultural presence in design projects. This program will be followed by a reception at 5pm.​

    The BlackSpace Urbanist Collective facilitates conversations exploring the importance of Black spaces and the power of design in creating and conserving these spaces for Black people. Their workshops are thought and action sessions, providing participants with a chance for deeper discussion and collaboration. No design experience needed! Open to all professionals, students, and the design curious.

    This program qualifies for 3 LU/HSW (AIA), 3 PDH (LA CES/ASLA).

    This program will be in-person at the National Building Museum.

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