World War II and the
American Dream
National Building Museum, Washington, DC
1994–95
This exhibition explored the impact of wartime construction, from air craft plants to defense housing, on postwar American life.
Mr. Albrecht conceived the idea of the show and catalogue, selected all artifacts, wrote exhibition text, assembled the design team and catalogue essayists.
Press
“World War II and the American Dream,” the National Building Museum’s outstanding survey of military construction…Organized by Donald Albrecht, an architect and independent curator, and presented in a superb installation designed by the architect and critic Michael Sorkin and J. Abbott Miller, a graphic designer, the show pulls into coherent shape a wide range of artifacts: photo murals of bomb factories, prototypes for new consumer products, clips from wartime propaganda films, Hollywood pinups, a full-scale Quonset hut and other materials that illustrate the rise of a superpower.”
Herbert Muschamp, New York Times, January 8, 1995
Credits
Exhibition designer: Michael Sorkin
Exhibition graphic designer: Abbott Miller
Installation photographer: Paul Warchol
