With a collection of over 250,000 historic photographs and artifacts of agrarian and maritime culture of the Oregon Coast, the Coos History Museum and Maritime Collection had outgrown its previous home.
In 2000, a grant initiated a search for a new facility, but the grant stipulated the new museum be located on Highway 101 to provide a development catalyst for the historic wharf at Coos Bay. The museum’s new site is on the wharf at the gateway to Coos Bay with historic docks on the east, a cove to the south, and the historic roadway to the west. A future development will eventually rise to the north.
The goal for the design of the museum, which bridges the history of the region through stories of the Coos and Coquille Tribes, coal miners, loggers, farmers, and shipbuilders, was to create a building that paid tribute to the past while serving as a beacon for change along the waterfront.
Photo courtesy of Signal Architecture & Research.
The resulting building has a simple barnlike form inspired by waterfront industrial facilities. A light well pierces the barn-shaped volume and provides a visual cue for circulation, stairs, and a central focal point from highway 101. A gift shop, multi-purpose space, and a large gallery are located on the ground floor. The second floor is dedicated to staff and volunteer offices, boardrooms, archives, and travelling gallery mezzanine. A stair tower serves as a repository for tall exhibits that require a 40-foot-tall exhibit space.
Miller Hull Partnership was the Architect of Record for the project and Signal Architecture & Research was the Project Design Lead.
Related Stories
| Nov 14, 2014
Bjarke Ingels unveils master plan for Smithsonian's south mall campus
The centerpiece of the proposed plan is the revitalization of the iconic Smithsonian castle.
| Nov 12, 2014
Chesapeake Bay Foundation completes uber-green Brock Environmental Center, targets Living Building certification
More than a decade after opening its groundbreaking Philip Merrill Environmental Center, the group is back at it with a structure designed to be net-zero water, net-zero energy, and net-zero waste.
| Nov 7, 2014
NORD Architects releases renderings for Marine Education Center in Sweden
The education center will be set in a landscape that includes small ponds and plantings intended to mimic an assortment of marine ecologies and create “an engaging learning landscape” for visitors to experience nature hands-on.
| Nov 5, 2014
The architects behind George Lucas' planned Chicago museum unveil 'futuristic pyramid'
Preliminary designs for the $300 million George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art have been unveiled, and it looks like a futuristic, curvy pyramid.
| Nov 3, 2014
IIT names winners of inaugural Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize
Herzog & de Meuron's iconic 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage in Miami Beach, Fla., is one of two winners of the $50,000 architectural prize.
| Oct 29, 2014
Diller Scofidio + Renfro selected to design Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs
The museum is slated for an early 2018 completion, and will include a hall of fame, theater, retail space, and a 20,000-sf hall that will showcase the history of the Olympics and Paralympics.
| Oct 23, 2014
Prehistory museum's slanted roof mimics archaeological excavation [slideshow]
Mimicking the unearthing of archaeological sites, Henning Larsen Architects' recently opened Moesgaard Museum in Denmark has a planted roof that slopes upward out of the landscape.
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 12, 2014
AIA 2030 commitment: Five years on, are we any closer to net-zero?
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the American Institute of Architects’ effort to have architecture firms voluntarily pledge net-zero energy design for all their buildings by 2030.
