The Old Courthouse, a designated “Level 1” historically significant building on the National Register of Historic Places, is a key destination within the Gateway Arch National Park. It is undergoing a major restoration to improve accessibility, climate control, temperature comfort levels and fire protection, and to significantly enhance the visitor experience with new exhibits in four main galleries, in synergy with these infrastructure alterations.
The protected status of the Old Courthouse required an approach to the gallery design that celebrated and protected the historic fabric and character of the building, whilst maximizing universal access and visitor immersion. A key design objective of this project was to “unclutter” the galleries to enhance the visibility of original building architecture and to deliver visitor experiences that continue the high level of universal design adopted throughout the Gateway Arch National Park redevelopment, including the neighboring Museum at the Gateway Arch.
This discursive session, including participants from architecture, exhibit design and client representatives, will explore the coordinated strategies, approaches, and process (creative, communication and technical) followed to design fresh museum experiences within a protected historic building, highlighting historic and accessibility techniques which can be widely applied to any historic building visitor experience revitalization scheme. The session will also explore the project's funding and partnership dynamics demonstrating the opportunities and challenges of project delivery within the context of public/private development.
Learning Objectives
- Understand how to combine historic architecture with exhibit design components to allow renovated historic spaces to become integral to the overall visitor experience.
- Gain creative and technical know-how of ways to leverage historic architecture whilst creating thoughtful and impactful museum experiences with appeal to diverse visitor groups.
- Discuss how museum designers and architects can work collaboratively from the beginning of a project to deliver new visitor experiences within an historic building context.
- Explore how to design museum experiences in historic buildings with universal accessibility in mind through all project stages.
- Examine the complexities and strategies of a funding model in a project involving private and federal funding.
