Summer Project – Observatory Museum

By: Ken Hodwer

The overall concept for this project was to design an open-aired museum to host five different architectural exhibits, each having significance historically and similarity in some form. The site for the project is located in Illinois on roughly thirty-three acres of land. The site contains several variations in terrain – including direct access to a lake. The architectural exhibits will be organized on the site with respect to their original orientations as well as their historic timeline.

The visitors to the site will be directed along pathways to each individual exhibit. There will also be a centralized entry building to accommodate typical utilities such as restrooms, a food service, galleries, workshops, and administrative offices. The entry building will host galleries meant to enhance the users experience for each individual exhibit. These galleries will hold smaller items with significance to their respective architectural piece. Therefore, the galleries will be separated into five different areas – one for each piece. 

            The individual separations will take form not as large galleries for the exhibits, but rather smaller (or medium sized areas) with direct views toward each exhibit.  Therefore, the angle of these rooms and their windows is an important part of the make-up of this particular concept feature.  The viewing areas will be spread out through the entry museum building, and each area will have multiple windows that have direct access viewing toward their respective piece of architecture that they wish the emphasize for the exhibit.

            The building will also host several of the needed amenities for staff and museum visitors.  A café lounge will be incorporated into the design for all to have a snack or even a full lunch meal.  Within the building, there will also be designated areas for repair and preparation of exhibits, maintenance facilities, a gift shop, and adequate administrative working areas.

            The design of the building will be that of representing an artistic style of a museum.  Of course, the style will also be determined by the actual exhibits themselves – pulling features from each to make up the aesthetic appearance, façade, and building make-up.  As for design concepts, the initial idea is to allow for crescent shapes – as a way of representing the sun angles that most of these exhibits are meant to track.