Archives-Navy Mem'l 

THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER FOR NEWS GEEKS — the Newseum opens its doors at its new Pennsylvania Avenue location on Friday, more than six years after leaving Rosslyn.

The 643,000-square-foot museum of news is three times larger than the old building, and is just slightly smaller than the National Air and Space Museum. And it boasts 14 galleries and 15 theaters, including a "4-D" theater.

"It's a 3-D movie, but the seats shake, rattle and roll," Charles Overby, the CEO of the Newseum, said. The theater's first flick, "Eye Witness Time Travel," follows Nellie Blye as she goes undercover at a mental institution and Edward R. Murrow as he reports live from London during World War II.

Like its predecessor, the Newseum was designed to be one of the most interactive museums in the world. Visitors can tape their own news broadcast of a famous event, or they can watch news events like the lunar landing unfold as they took place in the museum's Internet, TV and radio gallery.

But while the old Newseum relied primarily on interactivity, there are some more traditional museum elements this time around.

"Almost everything in it is brand new. We really didn't have a lot of artifacts in the first one," said Overby. "We have the most pieces of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany. We have the top 30 feet of the broadcast tower that was on top of the World Trade Center. We tell the story of what happened [on Sept. 11] through the eyes of the journalist."

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Newseum is the building itself. Robert Young, the associate partner for design of the Newseum, said the glass building's three levels were designed to look a lot like the newspapers it's dedicated to.

"When we first took this project, we had six or seven people come up with ideas on their own. A recent grad came to us with this crazy little model — a newspaper," he said. "The first level is like reading the headline, then you peel deeper into the other sections of the newspaper. The best part is it can be read in any order."

The multileveled layout and glass transparency allows for some of the best views of Washington. The view alone is worth coming to the Newseum, Overby said. "You can really see Washington, literally, from the studio terrace."

But the terrace design has an additional meaning for Young.

"It's appropriate that the museum of news allows visitors to look at the Capitol — journalists are supposed to keep an eye on the government," he said. "It's a nice metaphor that visitors to the Newseum can do the same."

» Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW; $20, $18 age 65 and older, $13 ages 7-12, younger free; 888-639-7386. (Archives-Navy Memorial)

Written by Express contributor Jason Koebler
Photos courtesy Newseum.org

Posted by Express at 12:01 AM on April 10, 2008
Tagged in Entertainment , Out & About , The District , Top Stories