National Building Museum Names New Executive Director

WASHINGTON, DC — The National Building Museum has named Aileen Fuchs as its new president and executive director as the museum prepares to reopen this spring with a new visitor center and new exhibits.

Fuchs will be coming to the National Building Museum after serving as president and CEO of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden on Staten Island in New York. She will be the museum’s fifth executive director in its 40-year history.

The National Building Museum’s fourth executive director, Chase W. Rynd, retired in June 2020 and was named director emeritus. Dr. Brent Glass has served as interim executive director of the museum since last July. He will remain with the museum as a senior adviser through the end of June after Fuchs begins her new role on May 5.

During the selection process, the National Building Museum’s board of trustees said it was impressed with Fuchs’ “combination of energy, thought leadership, and experience, as well as her rare ability to toggle effortlessly between vision and action.”

“The Board is ecstatic to have Aileen lead the National Building Museum as we begin our next four decades,” Anthony Greenberg, chair of the museum’s board of trustees and executive vice president at JBG Smith, said Thursday in a statement.

Since opening in 1980, the National Building Museum has become one of the city’s most popular museums. The museum focuses on helping the public understand the impact of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, construction, planning and design.

The museum, which hosts many special events during non-pandemic times, is located in the historic Pension Building.

The museum has been closed to the public since December 2019, at first for required construction work, and then because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The museum will reopen this spring.

New exhibitions will include the D.C. debut of the Gun Violence Memorial Project, an architectural space of remembrance and healing and the work of architectural photographer Alan Karchmer. The new visitor center will help visitors understand the museum’s mission and scope.

Prior to leading the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Fuchs served as executive director of exhibits and programs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation and as associate curator and content manager at the American History Workshop.