How an Aggie Architect Helped Open the Lincoln Memorial’s Hidden Undercroft
Megan Tormey ’01 helped lead the effort to transform a long-hidden void beneath the Lincoln Memorial into a public museum.
Opened in June 2026, the Lincoln Memorial undercroft museum combines multimedia exhibits with views of the monument’s exposed concrete foundation.
For years, Aggie architect Megan Tormey, AIA, LEED AP ’01 worked in a place few visitors to the iconic Lincoln Memorial ever saw. Beneath the marble monument lies a vast undercroft: a cavernous structural grid of 122 towering 50-foot concrete columns, exposed earth and open voids that support one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks.
As a senior associate at Quinn Evans, Tormey spent nearly a decade leading the design team that transformed the century-old undercroft into a public museum, revealing a new layer of the monument’s history.
The Lincoln Memorial Undercroft, now a 15,000-square-foot exhibit, officially opened to the public in June, coinciding with the 250th anniversary celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
“Working on the Lincoln Memorial was an incredible responsibility, one that stayed with me every day over the nine years I was involved,” Tormey said. “It truly became a passion project.”
An architectural cross-section shows the Lincoln Memorial’s statue chamber above the Undercroft exhibition spaces.
Designing for a Space Like No Other
Tormey’s work on the Undercroft relied on skills she began honing at Texas A&M University as a graduate student. While earning her master’s in architectural design, Tormey was a research assistant at the College of Architecture’s Center for Heritage Conservation.
As a researcher, Tormey focused on documenting unique structures with no standard design precedents. She transformed data on hand-stacked Native American Pueblitos in New Mexico and completed a month-long digital survey of Fort Pulaski in Georgia.
Megan Tormey from the Texas A&M Center for Heritage Conservation documents a historic wall during a digital survey at Fort Pulaski in Georgia.
“My experience at Texas A&M gave me a strong foundation in documenting and analyzing complex existing conditions, especially for unconventional structures,” Tormey said. “There were no standard details or precedents to rely for the Undercroft, so I had to apply some of those same skills — careful observation, documentation and problem solving — to develop solutions tailored to a truly one-of-a-kind structure.”
Tormey and her team worked closely with the National Park Service to redesign the Undercroft to immerse visitors in the scale of the structure itself — and its historical significance.
“Every design choice celebrates the foundation that has quietly carried the Lincoln Memorial for over a century,” Tormey said, according to Quinn Evans.
Inside the Undercroft, visitors can view floor-to-ceiling curtain wall glazing that frames dramatic views into the space, multimedia exhibits, an orientation theater and visit the gift shop.
While the Memorial’s above-ground statue chamber honors President Abraham Lincoln, the Undercroft exhibit explores the memorial’s significance to the Civil Rights Movement.
“The Memorial is such a powerful symbol of civil rights and equality, and one of the things that I’m most proud of is that the undercroft project was led by so many women across disciplines — from the National Park Service to the design team and construction teams,” Tormey said. “When the Memorial was originally built, women didn’t even have the right to vote.”
Solving the Micro-Climate Challenge
The Undercroft’s new design is unlike any traditional museum. Rather than enclosing the Undercroft in a conventional buildout, the team introduced contemporary elements that sit lightly within the historic structure.
“There are only three defining elements within the Undercroft: the existing concrete columns and arches, the earth at their base, and the void between them,” Tormey said. “Preserving that sense of openness and especially the scale of the space became one of the most important and sensitive aspects of the design.”
Tormey said any new features are deliberately distinguishable. The museum uses reclaimed wood to symbolize the forms used to shape the existing concrete columns. The smooth finishes on new structural elements help visually separate them from the historic materials.
An architectural rendering shows a tactile exhibit about the Lincoln Memorial statue in the Lincoln Memorial Undercroft.
But preserving the Undercroft’s scale and openness in the redesign meant confronting the space’s harsh and unpredictable environment.
Originally opened in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial sits on reclaimed land that was once part of the Potomac River. Its foundations had to be driven 50 feet down to bedrock to stabilize it, resulting in the Undercroft. Never intended for visitors, the space remained largely hidden for decades, aside from a small window installed during a 1970s renovation and later removed.
Because the Memorial sits on reclaimed land, the Undercroft behaves almost like an underground swamp. Temperatures fluctuated by as much as 50 degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity levels frequently reached 99%. The conditions threaten to fog the glass walls that allow visitors to look into the Undercroft and experience the exhibit.
To keep those views clear, Tormey said the design team used a special glass system that gently warms when moisture rises without altering the historic space.
Now open to the public, the Undercroft gives visitors a new way to understand the hidden structure beneath one of the nation’s most recognizable monuments — and the foundation that has supported its place in American history for more than a century.
Megan Tormey, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, earned her master’s in architectural design from Texas A&M University in 2001 and now serves as a senior associate at Quinn Evans in Washington D.C. Megan also earned a Certificate in Heritage Conservation at TAMU in addition to her masters.
