Construction has begun on the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., which will see a landmarked refrigeration warehouse two blocks from the National Mall converted into an $800M museum to display some 44,000 Biblical artifacts collected by the president of Hobby Lobby, the evangelical craft store chain. The renovation of the eight-story 1923 building is being led by SmithGroup JJR, a D.C. firm that is also working on the African American museum and a proposed LGBT museum. Although drastic exterior changes to the protected warehouse are not allowed, the firm will add a two-story zinc-and-glass volume shaped like an ark to the top of the building.
Visitors to the future 430,000-square-foot museum will enter through a door flanked by tall bronze panels meant to evoke a Biblical manuscript. Once inside, they will be greeted in the triple-height lobby by a 40-foot panel of stained glass, and an LED ceiling that showcases rotating works of art inspired by the Bible.
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