The famous image of Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima, captured first as a photograph by Joe Rosenthal for the Associated Press, and then as a bronze monument, was an inspiration to Fentress Bradburn Architects for the award-winning structure.

NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON, DC - Weidlinger Associates received a 2007 Engineering Excellence Platinum Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC New York) for the National Museum of the Marine Corps, the new centerpiece of the Marine Corps Heritage Center in Quantico, Virginia. The museum also received an Excellence in Structural Engineering Outstanding Project Award (in the New Buildings over $25M category) from the Structural Engineers Association of Metropolitan Washington (SEA-MW). The building will serve as an exhibition center, historical archive, memorial, and meeting place for the US Marine Corps. Fentress Bradburn Architects was selected to design the Museum in a national design competition.

The Museum’s defining feature is a 240-foot-long (or 210-foot-tall) stainless-steel-clad mast that rises from the floor of the 20,000-square-foot, circular Leatherneck Galley at a 60-degree angle. The key elements of the structure, the dramatic skylight and mast, are visible from nearby I-95. The skylight has five ridge beams and thirty-two smaller rib beams that give the 35,000-square-foot glass facade its curving structure. A concrete ring beam held 45 feet above the deck by slender columns supports the skylight frame.

Three battle tanks were set into place before the building was completed, so that their installation would not damage the concrete slab on grade. For better viewing of these exhibits, Leatherneck Galley contains a stair tower, which was designed to resemble a ship’s conning tower with cantilevered balconies and an observation deck at the top. The Museum incorporates many green features, including a green roof.

Founded in 1921, ACEC New York is the oldest continuing organization of professional consulting engineering firms in the United States. Members of the statewide association represent all major engineering disciplines and range from highly specialized solo practitioners to multidisciplinary firms employing thousands with branch offices worldwide.