NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
MALL MUSEUM CONSTRUCTION FACTS
AND TIMELINE

In June 2001, the Smithsonian Institution awarded a contract to “CLARK/TMR, A Joint Venture,” to build the 260,000-square-foot National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., scheduled to open in the fall of 2004.

The building is located on a 4.25-acre site east of the National Air and Space Museum.

Since the museum groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 28, 1999, the museum’s unusual footprint has been etched into the landscape through excavation, drainage, sheeting and shoring, pile driving, and most recently, concrete structure formation.

The $56.7 million Clark construction contract covers the foundation, structure and stonework of the Mall Museum. Total construction cost of the building will be $199 million, with an additional $20 million for exhibitions, public programs, and opening events.

The first phase of construction included the foundation and superstructure of the building, begun in July 2001. From August to November 2001, the main construction activity was the driving of 50' long steel piles to support the building’s foundation. A total of 1,059 piles were driven into the site.

Since November 2001, with the assistance of two 200-foot tower cranes, the main construction activity has been the coordination and installation of underground utilities and the pouring of concrete. The concrete pile caps have been poured and the pouring of foundation walls, basement walls and circular basement columns is ongoing. The pouring of the basement concrete floor slab will begin in early March and will proceed from west to east.

In February 2002, five exterior Kasota stone wall samples were erected on-site to help confirm the approved color range and assembly of the exterior walls. The museum will have an exterior cladding of Kasota dolomitic limestone from Minnesota. The pieces of Kasota stone will vary in size, coursing, and surface treatment giving the building the appearance of a stratified stone mass that has been carved by wind and water. Additional building materials include American-mist granite, bronze, copper, maple, adzed cedar, adzed alder and imperial plaster.

On February 1, 2002, the second phase of the Mall Museum construction began. This includes the construction of all vertical shaft enclosures (stairs, elevators and mechanical/electrical/ plumbing), the completion of the exterior enclosure (exterior masonry and stone walls), the completion of all landscaping and site work and the fit-out (completed interiors with furniture and equipment) of the basement, ground floor and second floor. The final phase of construction will include the fit-out of the third floor, fourth floor and fifth floor.

Once in its final stage, the museum will incorporate state-of-the-art technology by wiring the building with over 400 Multiple Communications Systems outlets run from a central Network Communication Center.

In connection with the start of construction, the NMAI Welcome Center opened in an on-site trailer facing Independence Avenue, between 3rd and 4th streets SW. Inside the Welcome Center, visitors encounter an exhibition about the planning, design and construction of the museum and view, through a window, the construction site and building progress.

Construction activities can also be viewed on-line via the National Museum of the American Indian’s webcam at the following Internet address: nmaicam.si.edu.

CLARK/TMR is composed of the Clark Construction Company of Bethesda, Md., and Table Mountain Rancheria Enterprises Inc., a construction company that is a subsidiary of the Table Mountain Rancheria of Friant, Calif. Table Mountain Rancheria is a federally recognized American Indian tribe. Table Mountain Rancheria Enterprises Inc. has completed a number of commercial and residential construction projects in California.

Members of the museum’s design team are: Johnpaul Jones (Cherokee–Choctaw) of Jones and Jones, design consultant; Polshek Partnership, LLP, and Tobey + Davis, joint venture architects; Donna House (Navajo–Oneida), ethno-botanist landscape consultant; Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi), design consultant; Lou Weller (Caddo–Cherokee), design consultant; EDAW, landscape architects; Severud Associates, structural engineers; and Consentini Associates, mechanical/electrical engineers. The museum’s conceptual design was prepared by the architectural team of GBQC (prime contractor) in association with Douglas Cardinal (Blackfoot) of Douglas Cardinal Architects (subcontractor to GBQC).

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SI-273-2001

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION   PO Box 23473  Washington   DC 20026-3473
202.357.3164 Telephone   202.357.3369 Fax