Museum of the Bible

Clark’s scope of work included major renovations and additions to a historic brick building, originally built as a refrigerated warehouse in 1922. The brick façade of the warehouse remained in place, while four of the eight existing structural concrete floors, as well as the roof, were demolished in order to create greater floor to ceiling space on the exhibit floors. Underpinning and support of excavation work also was performed on the historic building, lowering the existing basement five feet to provide additional space for mechanical equipment.

A non-historic building addition and loading dock were demolished to make way for two levels of below-grade space and a new concrete structure with a custom handmade brick and channel glass façade. An additional three levels of new construction was built above the existing historic and new infill structure, and includes a 500-seat performance hall, ballroom, restaurant, and function spaces. These new spaces are contained within an iconic rooftop element, featuring a curved aluminum framed glazed curtain wall assembly, with channel glass infill, skylights, zinc batten panel roofing, and a green roof system.

Concurrent with the activities in the historic building, Clark also performed work in the adjacent 450,000 square-foot Washington Office Center, which houses the headquarters of the U.S. Small Business Administration. In the below-grade garage, structural demolition created space for the museum’s central utility plant. Life safety system and elevators were also upgraded within the building. Additionally, a one-story addition above the Washington Office Center includes residences, offices, and educational facilities for scholars associated with Museum of the Bible.

S2N Technology Group was responsible for voice and data cabling, wireless internet, cellular DAS, security cameras, access control, and intrusion detection. This scope included over 1,000,000 linear feet of cabling, 500 wireless access points, 250 cameras, 300 access control doors, and 175 Exhibit case sensors. S2N also installed a state-of-the-art Audio-Visual package that included an acoustic enhancement system in the Museum’s 472-seat World Stage Theater.

Clark Foundations performed the support of excavation and historic façade preservation; Clark Concrete performed structural concrete work.