Transforming a workhorse into a show horse is difficult. The workhorse in this case was a triangular, eight-story, 1923 cold-storage warehouse, two blocks south of the Washington Mall. The show horse is the Museum of the Bible. The design team, led by architect David Greenbaum of SmithGroupJJR, decided to remove every other floor to obtain the 20-ft floor heights needed for the exhibit spaces. The owner “engaged Clark Construction as CM-at-risk,” says Greenbaum, calling them “the most team-based.” The firms had worked together on the National Museum of African American History.
“We had to completely support the facade on the upper two floors of the building, demolish the interior slabs, rebuild new structure behind the facade and re-attach the skin,” says Brian Flegel, senior vice president, Clark Construction.