Playing Tourist - The National Building Museum

I checked another item off the DC To-Do List this weekend, with a visit to the National Building Museum.

Inside the Building Museum

My thoughts on the Museum: An impressive building with a great shop and moderately interesting but not overly impressive exhibits.

The Building Museum is privately run, so it's one of the few museums in DC you have to pay an entrance fee for. It's only $8, which is quite reasonable when it comes to museum fees.

However, I think the reasonable price is because there really isn't that much to see. The huge, three story building only has 8 exhibits. They were diverse - from kid focused ones that let you build with blocks of all sizes - to one about green schools and another about L.A.'s growth and development over a fifty year time span. I saw all the exhibits in about an hour.

As I was finishing up I read through the guide brochure I picked up and discovered that entrance to the exhibits is what costs $8, but access to the building itself is free, and they have docents that offered free guided tours of the building. I'm curious about it's architecture and history so I'll probably return for one of those free tours at some point. And I definitely think I'll stop back in to shop in the museum shop - it was awesome and had everything from kitchen gadgets to kids toys to books and cards.

National Building Museum