Get On My Lawn: This Summer’s National Building Museum Exhibit Embodies Indoor Outdoor Life

• July 3, 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

The National Building Museum is resuming its Summer Block Party series tomorrow in collaboration with the LAB at Rockwell Group, creating a Lawn which brings the outdoor summertime experience indoors.

The foundation of the exhibit is a scaffolding structure which creates the base for a sloping lawn meant to evoke the all-day summer experience. The Lawn will host games of bocce ball, croquet and dominoes in addition to events often associated with summertime outdoors, including yoga, meditation and movie nights. There will also be an augmented reality game which allows users to catch, collect and release fireflies.

Several lounging areas pepper the lawn, and suspended hammocks with integrated speakers frame the lawn, programmed to play audio of over 100 luminaries sharing stories about summertime, including Bette Midler, Venus Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Norman Lear, José Andres, Phylicia Rashad, and Seth Hurwitz. The Lawn itself will also have a summertime soundtrack, with sound effects including everything from bees buzzing to mowers mowing and crickets chirping.

Another element of the exhibit is a scaffolding tower offering views of the lawn and the building from the height of the Museum’s third floor. The "grass" which comprises the lawn is a SynLawn material composed with sustainably-grown sugarcane and soybean. As in years past, most of the scaffolding and building materials will be recycled and reused after the exhibit is dismantled. 

The installation opens to the public tomorrow through Labor Day.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/get-on-my-lawn-this-summers-national-building-museum-exhibit-embodies-indoo/15617