WWI Museum Expansion Honored with KCBJ Capstone Award

Congrats to the National WWI Museum & Memorial Bergman Family Gallery and Open Storage Center, and congrats to my client, JE Dunn Construction!  The project was recently recognized with the 2024 Capstone Award in the Architectural Design category from the Kansas City Business Journal.

Creating this collection of images was a joy and MetroWire Media wrote a fantastic article about the project: http://www.metrowiremedia.com/news/revamped-and-reimagined-national-wwi-museum-unveils-stunning-upgrades

Many images had stark contrasts between light and dark areas, which really came alive when I zoomed in to hand-paint the right levels of light onto each item in the collection. The staircase is a really dynamic feature, and as an artist, I loved capturing the art gallery space.

In 1920, my grandpa, Eddie Overton Humiston (pictured below), turned 13 years old.  As the oldest of 8, one day, his parents gave him a dime and a piece of cheese was told there were too many mouths to feed and that he would have to leave to make his way in the world. Somehow he made it from Hutchinson, KS to St. Louis, MO where he lied about his age, joined the Navy and was sent to China.  

He aided the WWI war effort at the end of the war, plus many years following that in the Merchant Marines where he was eventually honorably discharged after getting struck in the right hand by a bullet. The nurse who took care of him became my Grandma – Doris Shufelberger! I never got to meet him, but I enjoy learning about him & have a lot of his personal belongings from WWI & his life.

The hard truth is, WWI was won in many tough battles, fought by many young men, and we have all veterans to thank for the freedoms we enjoy today.

Kansas City is so blessed to have the WWI Museum here in town, and now with the addition, there is even more to see and stories to reflect upon and cherish the freedoms we have today because of those who sacrificed.

This was a somber project, and I did it justice, making it bright and dynamic, yet solemn and momentous.

I love that what I do brings meaning (and awards!) to my clients *and* that it can be so personally meaningful.

Congrats also to JE Dunn for their other projects awarded: CPKC Stadium & the KCI Airport parking garage, both in the judges’ special recognition category.