Just as the Broadway hit “Hamilton” packs the epic biography of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton into a three-hour rap opera, the $120-million Museum of the American Revolution under construction in Philadelphia ambitiously jams the eight-year war into a tight urban site. The 118,000-sq-ft structure will sit two blocks from Independence Hall and steps from Carpenter’s Hall, where the Continental Congress first met. It’s also across the street from the First Bank of the United States, founded by Hamilton himself.
The nonprofit museum acquired the location at the corner of 3rd and Chestnut streets from the National Park Service in exchange for land it owned at Valley Forge. The project team—Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Keast & Hood Structural Engineers and general contractor INTECH Construction—was constrained by stringent zoning and deed restrictions, including a 65-ft height limit, on the 38,000-sq-ft footprint.