National Building Museum - The National Building Museum is much more than a repository of things, beautiful and intriguing though they may be. It is above all a forum for the development, exploration, and exchange of ideas. Created by an act of Congress in 1980, the National Building Museum has become one of the world’s most prominent and vital venues for informed, reasoned debate about the built environment and its impact on people’s lives. The Museum's exhibitions, educational programs, and publications are well regarded not only for their capacity to enlighten and entertain, but also as vehicles for fostering lively discussion about a wide range of topics related to development, architecture, construction and engineering, interior design, landscape architecture, and urban planning.