The Newseum's hefty price tag reflects the fact that it will be contained within a six-story mixed-use building housing much more than the museum's galleries and 500-seat theater. To be located in the spot that had been home to the Department of Employment Services at Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, the Newseum building will actually be a 530,000-sf property with 145,000 sf of housing for 100 residential units, room for retail offerings, 75,000 sf of Newseum and Freedom Forum office space and a conference center. Polshek Partnership Architects and Ralph Appelbaum Associates are behind the project's design.

"This is the final piece in a jigsaw puzzle that has taken 40 years to realize," Tony Bullock, director of communications for the office of Washington, DC Mayor Anthony A. Williams, tells GlobeSt.com. "The museum took over the last unattractive building on Pennsylvania Avenue that stretches from the White House to the Capitol. The benefit to the District is on many levels. It completes the transition of the last piece of Pennsylvania Avenue, and it will continue to enhance our tourism. It was very popular in Rosslyn, and will be even more popular here because it will be something people will do when they come to Washington, in addition to visiting the Smithsonian, the New Spy Museum and going to the Hill."