The Newseum

A new museum focusing on news, journalism and the role of the press in a free society needed a design that would keep pace with technology and the ever-changing nature of the news. It presents all of human history as, at a time, “news.” Visitors can watch news broadcasts be prepared and recorded, are invited to write and edit news stories in interactive games and can air their news-related concerns at an ethics center. At the museum’s entrance, a glass globe presents the names of prominent newspapers in their own typefaces. News-related quotations line the wall by the stairs. Computer stations for interactive games sit beneath illuminated front pages, electronic message boards and a live-feed video newswall.

Design Team

Ralph Appelbaum, Christopher Miceli, Kai Tom Chiu, Ricardo Mulero, Yolande Daniels, Cheung Tai, David Mandel (content coordinator), Sylvia Juran (editor), Deborah Wolff (project administrator); Philip Tefft, James Cathcart (exterior architecture), Glenn Kushner (exterior designer)

Design Firm

Ralph Appelbaum Associates

Fabricators

H.M. Brandston & Partners, Berner & Brill Lighting Design, Barbizon (lighting consultants); Production Design Group (studio set design implementation); Electrosonic (audio-visual systems); Joseph Cortina, Charles Guggenheim, Newseum (films); Bessant Studio (artifact installation); Charles M. Salter Associates, Miller Henning Associates (Acoustics); K.C.E. Structural Engineers, Bansal & Associates(engineering); Charles Maltbie Associates (fabricator)