Holocaust Museum Boston

May 23

WHO

Architect: Schwartz/Silver
Installer: Karas & Karas

    
WHERE & WHEN

Boston, MA · 
Americas

In Progress · 2026

WHAT & HOW

Museum · New Build
VS1-A100 walls enclosing exhibit and event spaces

FROM THE ARCHITECT SCHWARTZ/SILVER

❝ Above the entry, the curtain pulls back to reveal a large bay window containing an authentic railcar used for the deportation of the Jews to the extermination camps of the Third Reich. From the outside, museum visitors can be seen entering – but not leaving – the car. ❞

The Freedom Trail in Boston will soon feature a new building: the Holocaust Museum and Education Center, designed by Boston architecture firm Schwartz/Silver.

The building will be clad in a metal fabric that “evokes the curtains that remained drawn in Jewish households at the time of the Nazi rise to power.” Emerging from the curtains will be an 18-foot VS1 facade above the entryway showcasing a feature exhibit. Pointing north will be an acute all-glass corner, a standard detail of the VS1 technology.

At the top floor, a 12-foot VS1 wall will enclose an event space. The mullions will be at the exterior, creating a flush interior glass surface.

A new VS1-A mullion was developed for this important project: a 10” bullet-shaped extrusion with a reveal at the back will support both scopes with our standard patching fittings.

❝

IN THE PRESS WMUR

Imagine looking up from Boston Common, along the Freedom Trail, to see a six-story building. You notice two things: metal wrapped all around the middle of the building, and a rail car peeking out from behind huge glass windows.

—A first look at the Holocaust Museum set to open in Boston in 2026 · June 6, 2023

❞

Innovation Glass also proudly supplied the VS1 system for the feature facade of the Holocaust Museum in St. Louis, where the design goal was to symbolize Kristallnacht and the theme of shattered glass. Likewise, an inaugural use of VS1 was the iconic faceted enevelope of the Spertus Institute in Chicago. Krueck Sexton Partners said of the design: “The convex glass facade conveys the Jewish experience's dimensionality.”