The United States Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center is a 36,000 square foot new addition to the National World War II Museum complex in New Orleans, Louisiana. This new museum facility honors all of the service branches who served in the war, displaying the large artifacts that were a key part of the war effort.
A significant component of the U.S. Freedom Pavilion is the soaring 5-story atrium space that showcases some of the museum’s largest artifacts. Airplanes are frozen in flight, hanging above a large number of land vehicles and tanks. Catwalks that zigzag through the atrium space on each floor offer visitors a closer look at the suspended planes, including the Boeing B-17G “flying fortress” and P51. Interactive displays teach visitors about the roles and lives of pilots and other service personnel that served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Army Air Corps and Merchant Marines. Museum goers can also immerse themselves in the USS Tang Submarine experience, entering into a highly interactive re-creation of the submarine’s final mission.
Woodward Design+Build completed this new construction in January 2013, using Building Information Modeling capabilities to carefully coordinate construction and building systems throughout the complex space.