New Military Museums

Museum architecture has blossomed over the past few decades. Art museums lead the way in terms of new buildings by superstar architects such as Frank Gehry, Herzog and de Meuron, Jean Nouvel, and Renzo Piano, among many more. Those facilities have received public and professional recognition through media attention and design awards. But other museum typologies exist, one such being for buildings that showcase military history and artifacts. All too often, one thinks of these as unsophisticated in their design and amateurish or antiquated in their exhibitions. Nowadays, nothing can be further from the truth. This volume examines more than thirty of them internationally that were constructed over the past two decades and more. The museums are featured in individual entries and lavish color photography. Some were designed by internationally renowned architects such as Norman Foster, Daniel Libeskind, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and Robert A. M. Stern, but many more are the products of creative, accomplished designers. Beyond the architecture of these museums, exhibition and installation designs by noted specialist firms such as Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Kossmann.dejong, and Gallagher & Associates, among others, have raised the bar in terms of immersive experiences for their visitors. New military museums presented within the book are examined within the context of the history of war memorials and military museums, the latter being a less well researched subject. In the end, military museums relate back to antique sculptural commemorations of victorious campaigns and martial leaders, collections and displays of war trophies, and the search to find useful architectural memorials, the latter especially so after the World Wars of the twentieth century. Architectural historian John Zukowsky has an earned doctorate from Binghamton University. While curator of architecture for The Art Institute of Chicago (1978-2004), he organized a number of award-winning exhibitions accompanied by major books. After that, he held executive positions within military-related museums such as the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library in Chicago. Since 2012 he has authored several books about architecture and design, including Why on Earth Would Anyone Build That (2015), Building Chicago: The Architectural Masterworks (2016), and Architecture Inside - Out: Understanding How Buildings Work (2018).