The planned expansion of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans’ Downtown Warehouse Arts District is on target for its official grand opening five days before Veteran’s Day, as construction of the $300 million project moves rapidly forward toward a November 6 ribbon-cutting.
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The expansion, which will more than quadruple size of current museum, will feature four pavilions depicting the various campaigns of the war and the four branches of the armed services, a public parade ground, a state-of-the-art theater offering a multi-sensory cinematic experience, a USO-style entertainment venue and a full-service restaurant.
Victory Theatre Exterior Rendering
Several years in the making, the new additions to the existing National World War II Museum will feature four pavilions that include the following themes:
U.S. Freedom Pavilion: Gateway to the new complex, it will include galleries and exhibits titled “Prelude to War,” an overview of the events that led up to World War II; “Union Station,” a re-creation of a vintage 1942 train station where soldiers departed on their way to fight the war; and “We’re All In This Together” depicting the war effort at home.
Campaigns Pavilion: Galleries and exhibits include “Road to Berlin Briefing Room,” focusing on the land campaign in Europe; “Road to Tokyo Briefing Room,” depicting the sea and air battles on and over the Pacific Ocean; “Guadalcanal Gallery,” illustrating the island-hopping campaign in Pacific as American GIs wrested control of vital islands from the occupying Japanese; “Desert War Gallery,” focusing on the desert tank battles for control of north Africa; “Italian Campaign Gallery,” showing the successful first Allied land invasion of mainland Europe; and the “Battle of the Bulge Gallery,” showing the Allies’ final push toward Germany.
Liberation Pavilion: Spanning the closing of the war and the immediate postwar years this pavilion features exhibits that illustrate the human cost of the war, as well as the triumph of freedom and democracy over tyranny. It includes an Anne Frank Exhibit, a Concentration Camps Gallery, Liberation Theater and the “Fruits of Victory” Gallery.
Land, Sea and Air Pavilion: Showcases vintage aircraft, tanks, personnel carriers, watercraft, and other superior technological innovations that tilted the outcome of the war in favor of the Allies. A Submarine Interactive Exhibit shows what it was like being immersed in a sub.
Adjacent to the pavilion is the Stage Door Canteen with seating for 150 people at old-style tables and chairs and showing B&W footage of a USO entertainment show of that time.
Solomon Victory Theatre Rendering
The new museum expansion also features Victory Theater, described as “a multi-sensory cinematic experience,” offering the film, Beyond All Boundaries executive produced by Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks incorporating vintage B&W film footage with the latest modern cinematographic technology. Audiences will actually feel and experience what soldiers at the front experienced with authentic sound effects and other sensory stimuli.
The 250-seat Victory Theater will focus on a 120-foot wide immersive screen show Beyond All Boundaries, a 4-D cinematic experience, eight times daily. Created and crafted with 21st-century technology, it plunges viewers into the 20th-century’s most titanic struggle. It tells the tale of the Greatest Generation’s journey from Pearl Harbor into the fire of epic battles to America’s final victory in the “War That Changed the World” in the words of the veterans themselves. The exclusive production also features the voices of some of Hollywood’s top stars.
The 4-D technique engages all the audience’s senses with digital effects, life-sized props, animation, and atmospherics as well as film and sound. Audiences will feel the tank treads rumbling across North Africa’s deserts, brush snow from their cheeks during the wintery Battle of the Bulge, and flinch as anti-aircraft fire tries to bring down their B-17 on a bombing run over Nazi Germany.
The American Sector Rendering
The complex will also house a full-service restaurant and bar called The American Sector by Chef John Besh, a James Beard award-winning talent.
Also adjacent to new buildings will be an outdoor Parade Ground where visitors can get the feel for what it was like when GIs where drilled and whipped into shape for the grueling combat that lay ahead of them on the various fronts of the war.
The present National World War II Museum that is open features exhibits centering around the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy, the Home Front during WWII and the beachfront assaults on the Japanese-held islands of the Pacific. Exhibit galleries incorporate text panels, artifacts, and personal account stations in which visitors may listen to the stories of WWII veterans and others who supported the war effort. The special exhibitions gallery houses changing exhibits on different aspects of World War II. And regularly scheduled and special events at the museum are ongoing, a listing of which is accessible on the museum’s website.
The National World War II Museum is a special place that encourages learning – at all ages, from school-age youngsters to scholars; even to the war veterans themselves. Archives are available for writers and researchers, including authentic documents, diaries, books, periodicals, taped oral histories and more.
About the National World War II Museum
The late renowned historian, bestselling author and educator, Dr. Stephen Ambrose founded the National World War II Museum Foundation in New Orleans in 1991. The Museum, which opened on June 6, 2000, is the only one in the United States that addresses all of the amphibious invasions or "D-Days" of World War II, honoring the more than one million Americans who took part in this global conflict.
The National World War II Museum opened its doors on the 56th anniversary of the Normandy invasion that liberated Europe. It is located in New Orleans, Louisiana because it was here that Andrew Higgins built the landing craft used in the amphibious invasions; the landing craft which General and later President Dwight Eisenhower credited for winning the war for the Allies.
The museum’s main entrance fronts on Andrew Higgins Drive (formerly Howard Avenue) between Camp and Magazine streets, downtown. Hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. all seven days of the week (closed Mardi Gras Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). It is fully accessible to all visitors.
Wheelchairs are provided for use in the museum and short introductory museum guides are offered in Braille, French, Spanish and German.
Tickets and Information
Free museum admission is offered to military personnel in uniform and children under 5. Tickets may be picked up at the museum ticket desk. To purchase ten or more tickets please contact group.sales@nationalww2museum.org or call (504) 528-1944 x222.
For more information, including special events to be held at the museum, and a list of extensions call (504) 527-6012 or email info@nationalww2museum.org.
