The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC is a nine-story building with five levels above ground and four more below. The 400,000-square-foot building includes exhibition space, a theater and café, staff offices and an education center.
The building offers a number of prismatic angles and viewpoints known as “lenses,” or opportunities for visitors to view the White House and the Washington Monument, as well as other locations around the National Mall from unique framed perspectives—”a view of America through the lens of the African American Experience.”