Ground Breaks on Newseum's New $400M Home

WASHINGTON, DC-The official kickoff for construction of the $400-million Newseum multimedia museum center has come and gone with a recent ceremonial groundbreaking hosted by museum operator, the Freedom Forum. CarrAmerica Urban Development is handling construction duties and will begin the real work early on in 2004. At 215,000 sf, the facility’s new gallery space will be more than double the size of its former Arlington, VA-based site, which shut its doors last year in preparation for the new development.

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.