Museum of the Bible is a project currently under construction in Washington, DC in a close proximity to the National Mall, in a reconstructed 400,000+-square-foot space that once was the Washington Design Center. It will house a collection of more than 40,000 ancient Biblical texts and artifacts—including one of the world's largest private collections of Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest-surviving New Testament texts in Jesus' household language, other antiquities dating from the first century BCE and Torah scrolls that survived the Holocaust. The museum also plans to display items borrowed from other prominent collections from around the world.

Within Museum of the Bible, my responsibility was to design a gathering room, a multipurpose room for 500+ guests located on a top floor with a view on the Capitol building that will serve as a ball room, lecture/presentation/convention space, gathering space, etc.

 

 

 

Main challenge were proportions of the space. Ceiling height is limited by low roof beams. The design concept to solve low ceiling issue is a faceted ceiling with top points in between the roof beams. This solution provides necessary ceiling height for elegant crystal chandeliers.

 

 

 

 

 

The gathering room is equipped with a sound system incorporated into the ceiling, retractable support and light receptactles to increase the lighting flexibility of the space, and LED screens at each end of the room. The room features a bronze metal mesh ceiling, bronze and stone columns that referrence classical style and formality. Highly polished wooden floor pattern comunicates with the ceiling pattern. Handmade Lasvit crystal chandeliers were specified as a focal point of the space while star-like small aperture downlights provide general lighting. Included is operable partition that divides the space into 2 separate rooms.