NMAI

[David Lewis]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[1]

"Explaining the American Experience [:] Museums Now Promote Sense of Cultural
Identity," Gil Klein, Richmond Times Dispatch, May 26, 2003, A7. Copyright
2003, Richmond Newspapers Incorporated.

["When it opens in September 2004, the National Museum of the American Indian
will look like an undulating Western mesa, a massive rock cliff face sculpted
by wind and rain. The $200 million Smithsonian museum will resemble no other
building on the National Mall. That is because the museum's shape, purpose
and collection has been created not so much by professional museum planners
but by 24 Indian tribes. 'It honors the native attitude toward the
environment,' said Richard West, the museum's director, a Southern Cheyenne
Indian. 'It is a significant departure from the traditions of Western
architecture.' The building will seem to be part of nature. Large windows and
huge open spaces will blur the distinction between inside and out."]