Black History Month: A Look Inside The Design Of The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture

Note: This is the eighth installment of WCBS 880's Black History Month series.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It's impossible to miss the new museum coming right next to the Washington Monument.

It looks like nothing else on the National Mall.

"All the other buildings are stone or brick. This is a bronze-clad building," David Adjaye, architect of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, told WCBS 880's Jane Tillman Irving back in 2014.

Now, the building is up and set to open in Washington on Sept. 24 of this year.

Lonnie Bunch, the museum's director, says so much of black history is hidden in plain sight.

"African Americans helping to build the white house, or the U.S. Capitol… buildings throughout the south were shaped by the African American community," Bunch said.

The bronze facade is patterned.

"Designs [are] taken from the ironwork that so many of the enslaved people made in Charleston and New Orleans," Bunch explained.

Bunch said inside the museum, the full range of black contributions to the American experience will be featured.