"As the anchor of the L'Enfant Plaza project, the National Children's Museum will play an important part in the renaissance of a long-overlooked area of the city that will be a gateway to the waterfront and a link to the cultural treasures on the Mall," JBG Cos. managing partner Michael Glosserman notes. Museum officials are busy with a $100-million fundraising campaign to fund the new building.

The Capital Children's Museum has called a 2.5-acre site at 800 3rd St. home for the last three decades. But the doors of that locale will close this Labor Day because the officials have decided to sell the century-old property to Adbo Development in exchange for $24 million. Between the closure and the scheduled 2008 completion of the new location, the arts facility will morph from the Capital Children's Museum, to the Children's Museum Without Walls--a temporary "homeless" form of the museum--to its final incarnation at L'Enfant Plaza, the National Children's Museum. Upon completion, the new museum will be surrounded by L'Enfant Plaza's redeveloped retail, office and hotel space.

"Bringing the National Children's Museum to L'Enfant Plaza is a clear signal that JBG plans to wake a sleeping giant," Hickok Warner Cole's Mike Hickok says. "L'Enfant Plaza has long been a missed opportunity--it has never been the vibrant, energetic urban place and link to the southwest waterfront that the city urgently needs. The museum will be critical to help breathe life into the revitalization effort."