The Beautiful Machine: Architecture and Technology in Museum Design

Much of our cultural heritage is preserved and showcased in museum buildings. These critical spaces must do many things: serve as enduring outward symbols of their mission; provide an engaging and memorable experience for visitors and an effective working environment for staff; fit into their surrounding historical and cultural context; and provide safe, secure, and environmentally appropriate conditions for their contents. In the very best buildings, these competing demands are balanced in creative ways, either through resourceful new design or creative adaptation and thoughtful rehabilitation of existing buildings.

Using examples from their extensive portfolio of new design and rehabilitation work—including the National Air and Space Museum, Yale University’s Sterling Memorial Library, the Glenstone Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw—our webinar presenters will explore trends and design practices in new buildings and rehabilitation work. In particular, we will cover the aesthetic expectations for cultural projects and the extended life-cycle performance requirements for public-realm buildings. We will discuss balancing architectural design excellence, aesthetic innovation, and unique programming with museum-specific interior conditions like temperature, relative humidity, and mechanical pressure control. We will also share effective engineering analyses used during existing conditions assessments and offer best practices for enclosure design.