National World War II Museum

Originally opened in 2000 as The National D-Day Museum, Congress designated The National World War II Museum as the national museum of America’s participation in World War II in 2004. Shortly thereafter, the Museum embarked on an ambitious expansion to provide visitors with an even more impressive experience and enable it to fulfill its mission in a more complete and comprehensive way.

Lord Cultural Resources laid the groundwork for the expansion by developing a Concept Plan in 2002-04 that provided the blueprint for the integration of existing facilities, exhibitions and programs into a short- and long-term expansion plan on a greatly enlarged campus. The National World War II Museum was so pleased with our work on the Concept Plan that we were further commissioned to plan, design and manage through to production the prototype of a new series of interactive multi-media exhibits on the home front in World War II. Lord Cultural Resources then produced a detailed Functional Program for the campus buildings and was further commissioned to plan and advise on the nation-wide competitions for an architect and an exhibition designer to implement the Concept Plan. The expansion, comprising seven buildings on five acres, is nearly complete.

Most recently, Lord was re-engaged to facilitate the development of a strategic plan to guide the museum’s future educational and outreach programming efforts. This initiative, entitled “Learning in the 21^st Century: A Strategic Vision for Outreach and Accessibility”, included the assembly of a high-level Task Force composed of Board members and external leaders to advise the Museum’s staff and the Lord team. The resulting strategic vision will determine the course and direction of the Museum’s learning initiatives up to the year 2030.